In her review of the last Spoon album, DV Assistant Editor Melanie Love called Spoon \u201cindie darlings\u201d and then went on to praise the album. Now, when I hear the phrase \u201cindie darlings,\u201d it conjures up an unflattering image of white bearded hispters in tight pants who are obsessed with themselves. Now, I can\u2019t speak to the personalities of people I don\u2019t know, but I have to think that this is a long way from what \u201cindie darling\u201d meant in 1986, when \u201cindie\u201d meant \u201cunderground\u201d and bands like R.E.M., Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth were beloved by a small but devoted cult of outsiders who disdained hair metal and New Wave.<\/p>\n
Whether Spoon are still indie darlings after their hiatus is up for debate on other, less useful music review websites. The point is that the band has returned after taking some time off for side projects, and this newfound vigor shows in their music. They Want My Soul <\/i>is a serviceable blend of classic indie\/alternative and thoroughly modern indie rock (with slight elements of electronic and hip-hop), and even if it\u2019s only occasionally great, it\u2019s consistently interesting.<\/p>\n
The lyrics follow a simple concept about all outside forces that want a piece of us \u2013 relationships, jobs, landlords\/bill collectors, etc. \u2013 and the music follows suit. \u201cDo You\u201d is the hit single, I guess, a sort of Foster The People knockoff (from their first album) with breathy \u201cdo-do-do\u201d lyrics to start, some solid acoustic guitar and a dreamy \u201880s-evoking backing track. \u201cInside Out\u201d is Moby-inspired electronica and the very good \u201cOutlier\u201d draws on U2’s Zooropa <\/i>album (specifically, a slower version of \u201cLemon\u201d) as a basis for its cloudy, driving rhythm. It’s the album’s best song and also the only one written by more than singer Britt Daniel.<\/p>\n
More modern tracks like \u201cRainy Taxi\u201d and \u201cRent I Pay\u201d are energetic garage rockers with attitude and \u201cI Just Don’t Understand\u201d has a sort of cool Britpop feel. In fact, nearly the entire album has a familiar feel, as if Spoon is a cover band playing obscure songs you feel like you know but can’t quite place by bands you love. Less successful are \u201cInside Out,\u201d the slow \u201cKnock Knock Knock\u201d and the closing \u201cNew York Kiss,\u201d which is just missing the spark it comes so close to having. <\/p>\n
It takes talent to use your sources to create something new yet vaguely familiar, as if these songs have been around for a long while and you\u2019re just now finding out about them. And even though it\u2019s not consistently great, much of the album is good, energetic indie pop rock that is worth checking out if you happen across a copy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7865],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-43998","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-spoon","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43998"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}