I’ve had the unique experience of discovering Spoon’s music backwards. Like reading a novel backwards, I was introduced to them as a fleshed-out accomplished band hitting on all cylinders, and have since traced them back to their somewhat less developed origins. Upon hearing Gimme Fiction for the first time in a record store in Tel Aviv, I was immediately captivated by their complex yet instantly digestible songs. Not long after I recognized the same catchy indie vibe— somewhat less worked over— at a friends house, and was pleased to discover Kill the Moonlight and Girls Can Tell. And now, listening to Telephono and The Soft Effects EP, I’m finally seeing the seeds of the sound that Spoon has carefully crafted over the years.
Telephono has a wealth of undercooked riffs and hooks that are somewhat compelling on their own, but could’ve been put to a much more potent use. For example, album opener “Don’t Buy the Realistic,” is a collection of parts that just don’t mesh together all that well. But somewhere in the chorus, buried underneath Britt Daniel’s barking, is a fantastic guitar riff that the New Pornographers would later flesh out to dramatic effect in “Three or Four” off of Twin Cinema. Most of the songs clock in at under three minutes, and five them are less than two minutes long, giving the feel that the album was mostly a collection of pieces of songs that the band rushed together simply to put together an album, which for all I know may have been the case.
There is to me one notable exception though. “Nefarious” is kick-ass song all the way through. And while it may seem simplistic when placed next to say “My Mathematical Mind,” it stands out on this album as a song where all the parts work together to make a complete whole. Even though it may be raw in terms of the rest of their catalogue, I still think it stands out years later as one of the band’s best.
But “Nefarious” is really the lone standout here. The rest of the album is full of competent drumming and pieces of good guitarwork, but the songs simply lack cohesion and drive. The lyrics don’t seem to be saying much at all (sample: So c'mon and take my hand, c'mon and /c'mon and take my hand, c'mon and /c'mon and take my hand, c'mon and / take my, take my, take my, take my). It’s unfortunate that most of Daniel’s vocals are either barked or in spoken word— it sounds like he’s channeling the tone of Eddie Vedder’s between song banter, only during the music—, because in later albums he’s proven to be a very capable singer.
On the Soft Effects EP, the songs are more developed, though perhaps not as promising as the pieces floating around Telephono. “Mountain of Sound” isn’t bad at all for a feedback heavy dirge with vocals that sounded like they were recorded from across the street. And “Waiting for the Kid to Come Out” is a gem that would fit in just fine on Kill the Moonlight. If only Eddie— I mean Britt— would just sing a little more.
These albums, recently re-released by Merge, are really for hardcore fans only. For the rest of us, download “Nefarious” and “Waiting…” and wait to see what Spoon does next. |