Spoon’s New Album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Leaked, Rocked, Reviewed, Dug

Background

I think Spoon’s A Series of Sneaks is one of the best rock albums ever recorded. It’s about as perfect as they get for me… track after track of Quality Listening ™, ala Pixies’ Surfer Rosa.

Ok, bar set.

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Naturally, further Spoon — or any — material is going to have to blow my mind to measure up to Series. Spoon’s new record Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga doesn’t measure up. (Spoon’s good song/bad song ratio has been getting worse since Girls Can Tell.)

[But the sky is not falling. Gimme Fiction's "I Summon You" is brilliant. No other word for it. The rest of Gimme doesn't stack up, but that track is as near to perfect as music gets. How to follow that up?]

At first listen, a friend said “Don’t Make Me A Target” sounded like that other song of theirs. Probably she meant “I Summon You” — one of a handful of Spoon songs on her laptop — in which case I understand her point…

Spoon puts out a sparse, minimalist rock sound they developed after the rough but satisfying Telephono. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga certainly does not break from this recipe. I can’t speak for my friend, but in my opinion Spoon’s distinctive sound does make their music sound similar or at the very least familiar — until you pour yourself into it. Then it’s more diverse. (Not as diverse as say Pink Floyd’s 20-odd albums over 20+ years, a range that covers let’s-take-liquid-acid-via-eyedrops “Astronomy Domine” to The Wall’s dull singalong We Don’t Need No Education, but diverse nonetheless.)

The Envelope, Please

The fantastic “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” starts with classic Britt Daniel falsetto, a Spoon trademark, while “Don’t Make Me a Target” has a ride-heavy starkness that is the Spoon paradigm. Wonderful songs. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga would be great — with a few subtractions. You can see which from the screenshot of my iTunes ratings. It’s uneven, with a few standouts and a few fillers.

I like it. It took a long damn time — I was kinda sad that it would be the first Spoon album I’d dislike — but I like it. I rank it on par with Kill the Moonlight and below, well, everything else they’ve done including their fine cadre of EPs.

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is in stores this Tuesday.