For over a decade Spoon matured musically and developed their sound. Each successive album took the Spoon formula and tweaked it slightly, until in 2005 they released a perfect indie pop/rock record, Gimme Fiction. That record bounces around genres— from its jazzy opener to the dance-rock beats and falsetto of "I Turn My Camera On" to the sparse guitar ballad "I Summon You"— all the while maintaining a steady flow and consistent quality. In the wake of their previous success expectations were high for the follow-up, the strangely-titled Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Which of the many directions the band charted on Gimme Fiction would they pursue? Could they maintain the same tautness, an entire album's worth of material with no filler?
Anyone who's heard Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga shouldn't be worried about those questions. Picking up right where its predecessor left off, Ga X 5 sees the band at the top of its game. And like Gimme Fiction, it splashes around in many musical directions, all the while maintaining a pop immediacy and accessibility. The record starts with snarling guitar and rhetoric to match in the political firebrand "Don't Make Me a Target." Lead singer Britt Daniel calls out those in power as "nuclear dicks with the dialect drawls" and Bush in particular as a man who "never claim to say what he says," (a potent line if not for the follow-up "he smells like the insides of closets upstairs, the kind where nobody go").
As they are known to do, Spoon completely mix it up with the next track, the eerie "The Ghost of You Lingers." The song features a staccato piano and three overlapping vocals with different levels of echo applied. The nervous energy built up in the first two songs explodes into the power pop goodness that is "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb." Trumpets, tambourines, handclaps and an air of frivolity make this the perfect song for a laid back summer party. Linked only by their song-writing caliber and disregard for the English language, "Yr. Cherry Bomb" is followed by the dance-rock "Don’t You Evah" and "Sister Jack" sound-a-like "Rhthm & Soul."
The band does so many 180 degree turns in the first six songs it could make your head spin. Still, the songs flow into each other, like a casual tour of a movie studio with several different stages guided by a charismatic host. While "Eddie's Ragga" is the only song I'd consider a throwaway track, it serves the purpose of clearing the air before the bombast of the album's standout "The Underdog." Channeling the same horns and handclaps as "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb," "The Underdog" uses them to a more dramatic effect. The lyrics dress down an unnamed subject with stubborn tendencies, while the music bounces around excitedly. It all culminates in the song's and album's climax, a swirling mix of guitars, trumpets and drums stopped dead by a single gunshot. I've been told the song syncs rather well with the final few minutes of the Sopranos finale, and may even provide some clues to the ambiguous ending. http://stereogum.com/archives/score-the-sopranos-finale-with-any-mp3.html
Spoon spent years cultivating their sound, and seems to have reached a plateau in their development. Not that the album lacks experimentation, it juts out in a number of different directions. Songs diverse in style and consistent in quality are Spoon's bag. As long as they keep bringing the goods, they can call the albums and songs whatever the hell they want. |