More Utensil Artwork

Today’s entry comes from a previously discussed band, Spoon.  I left off discussing one of their earlier records, Girls Can Tell, an album that seemed to lay the groundwork for where the band would go in future releases.  Why I think Spoon is unique, I don’t know.  To me they are not like other bands I have heard…at least with the sounds put together the way they are.  Perhaps it is the way they employ different sounds, whether one of the members is beat-boxing (“Stay Don’t Go”) or Britt Daniel is playing unusual chord patterns on guitar.  Or maybe it is Daniel’s lyrics, which are frequently personal but come off in a strange, goofy fashion.

Something about Spoon is unique to me, and Kill the Moonlight (#63, Metascore = 88) does not change my opinion.  The sounds are different but build upon the foundation established by Girls Can Tell.  Every song sounds more concise, more focused than they did on Girls Can Tell.  The record itself clocks in at 34:50 and has no songs over 4 minutes in length (unlike Girls Can Tell, which had two songs over 4 minutes and is about a minute-and-a-half longer).  When you listen to the record, there are sounds coming from both sides, from behind you and in front of you, from all over.  Some bands have trouble filling in the empty space; Spoon does not.

While I thought I liked Girls Can Tell, I enjoyed Kill the Moonlight more.  There’s a great opener – “Small Stakes” – with a great organ riff and pumped up vibe, and there’s a beautiful closer – “Vittorio E.” – that is very minimal yet very full.  Lyrically (when I pay close attention) Daniel is able to weave in stories and feelings in a non-cliché way; I don’t feel like I’ve heard this story before or he’s rambling about the same stuff all over again.  There is never a particular rhyme scheme, just times of what feels like stream-of-consciousness that flow from his mouth.  I do not know whether this is his writing style or not, but I feel as if most of the songs he develops the sound ideas first and builds the lyrics around the sound.  Or maybe Daniel does both at the same time. I like many songs off the record, but “Someone Something” I probably like the most.  Musically it is an odd song, non-traditional in a chordal sense.  I like the harmonies with the “someone somethings” throughout, and the lyrics, while choppy, get the theme across.

I find Kill the Moonlight more accessible, more refreshing than some of their other albums I have heard.  What Spoon has put together here is a well-written album that baffled the critics when it came out because, while it was definitely a Spoon album with their sound, Kill the Moonlight took the best elements of all of their earlier work and made it sound commercial without being commercial.  The album sounds like a band that knows what it does best, knows how to write interesting melodies, and knows how to deliver them.  Their later albums (Gimme Fiction, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and Transference) do not reach this level of sophistication; they have their individual moments, but the albums themselves lack the cohesion of Kill the Moonlight.