quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
It's a solid album, very entertaining, and not really worthy of any derision, yet, as Spoon keeps narrowing its vision, it limits the possibility of growing into a Behemoth. Solid, yes; Behemoth, no.

I can kind of see what you're talking about here. When I heard the album, I liked it almost immediately, but my main thought was "well, this is a Spoon album." And a Spoon album is always quality... but without that many surprises. It kind of seemed that Gimme Fiction was moving in another direction, but they came back in and narrowed their focus with this one.

But who am I kidding? Every song they do is enjoyable as hell, so why should I complain?

Ha! Just noticed that AMG bumped their rating to 4.5 stars from 4 (I first saw the 4 star rating last week). Well deserved. I think AMG is one of the best, so good for Spoon.

yea i havent heard it all the way through yet but im liking it so far. from what i have heard so far its the best all around stuff they have put together.

I looked at that AMG page, and realized that "Don't You Evah", the song which I had early on pegged as the weakest track on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (or Ga^5 if you're FragileKidA), is not a Britt Daniel original, but a cover of an unreleased song by The Natural History. That explains much.

I wasn't wild about Spoon's last cover, Girls Can Tell's "Me and The Bean" (Orig. By The Sidehackers) either.

quote:

Originally posted by Briznow:
I can't help but wonder if anyone else is reminded of Billy Joel when listening to "The Underdog."

Dude, Billy Joel is all over the new record. Go listen to "All for Leyna" from Glass Houses and then listen to "Ghost of You Lingers" from Ga^5.

Go ahead, I'll wait . . .



[humming to self]



[still humming]



You back?



Scary, isn't it?

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
I looked at that AMG page, and realized that "Don't You Evah", the song which I had early on pegged as the weakest track on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (or Ga^5 if you're FragileKidA), is not a Britt Daniel original, but a cover of an unreleased song by The Natural History. That explains much.

I wasn't wild about Spoon's last cover, Girls Can Tell's "Me and The Bean" (Orig. By The Sidehackers) either.

I looooove Me and the Bean. Great song. I'll have to look up the original.

quote:

Originally posted by Chamberk:
I looooove Me and the Bean. Great song. I'll have to look up the original.

Um, me too. "Me and the Bean" is, like the album from which it is culled, nearly flawless.

quote:

Originally posted by Maximum Jack:

quote:

Originally posted by Chamberk:
I looooove Me and the Bean. Great song. I'll have to look up the original.

Um, me too. "Me and the Bean" is, like the album from which it is culled, nearly flawless.

I always thought it sounded oddly out of place. It's not bad, but it definitely doesn't compare to Britt's orginals. I'd say that and "10:20 AM" are my least favorite tracks on GCT.

Initially the only song that stuck out (in a bad way) for me from the new record was "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case." After hearing the record about a dozen times now, it doesn't bother me anymore and I actually look forward to it. It really is rivaling GCT as my favorite Spoon album of the decade. It won't eclipse SoS though.

By the way Spoon fans, check them out on Letterman this Wednesday. I, for one, have never seem them play live in any capacity, so I'm looking forward to it. I also saw the new video for "The Underdog" on Subterranean last night. Pretty sweet.

I must say I was rather let down by the new record. I was hoping they would venture out into new territories, but the album seemed a bit too 'safe' to me. Many songs had the same feel. But then I heard the extra CD that came along with it, and WOW! I wondered why the heck they didn't put more of that creativity into the main CD. It's only about 20 minutes long, but that 20 minutes is packed with alot more musical ideas then the entire main CD.
It just seems to me like Spoon is turning into a band that is becoming 'safe' and 'commercial', and worried about alienting fans. Based on the extra CD material they seem to enjoy experimenting, but I didn't hear much of that on the main CD. It just left me kind of bummed.

The Bonus CD didn't seem well thought-out. Sure, it was "more-experimental", and if they fleshed out those ideas, maybe they'd go somewhere, but I'll take the "safe" album proper anyday. (Actually, now that I've heard the entire bonus disc, it does sound more interesting, but I think it really should have a better rationale than just presenting underdeveloped outtakes.)

By the way, welcome to the site!! Please don't let me scare you off, and post away.

Yeah, that review was my cherry popper. Thanks for the input. Your right in that they just threw some of those songs on there, almost as an afterthought. They needed to be better developed. I guess that was part of the frustration for me. Some of those ideas could have been developed into some cool stuff. I must admit, I wrote my opinions after just one listen, so take it with a grain of salt. I know that it takes multiple listens to really appreciate music sometimes, so it's staying on my play list for many more days.

quote:

Originally posted by Maximum Jack:
It won't eclipse SoS though.

What's "SoS?"

Series of Sneaks maybe?

Ah, I see. At first I thought he may have meant the International Morse code distress signal, also known as SOS. However, now I see that he meant A Series of Sneaks, thanks for the clarification.

You are a horrible person.

http://cokemachineglow.com/reviews/spoon_gagagagaga2007.html

Wow, first mention in a review of "Album of the Year" that I've seen thus far in 2007.

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
I'd say that ["Me and the Bean"] and "10:20 AM" are my least favorite tracks on GCT.

I disagree with you about "Me and the Bean" but "10:20AM" is a least favorite from GCT for me, if only because I was pulled over for speeding in Indiana while listening to that song ... at ~10:20AM. And then I found $20.
My favorite from GCT is "Chicago At Night", anyone?

The problem with picking a favorite track off of Girls Can Tell is that it's pretty much all good. "Chicago at Night" is a great closer, but my favorite is either "Lines in the Suit" or "Anything You Want".