Review Summary: Pounding, ominous piano, sputtering, crackling electic guitars, driving bass. This album haunts and builds an atmosphere ligners and smolders with supressed grandeur.
Spoon was formed in Austin, Texas as a duo with Britt Daniel
providing volcals and guitar, and Jim Eno on drums. Though
the group had released two studio albums (Telephono,
released in 1996 and Soft Effects, released in 1997) it wasn't
until the release of their third album, A Series of Sneaks that
Spoon was able to become a buzz band in the underground
music world. The band followed up A Series of Sneaks with
the albums Girls Can Tell and Kill The Moonlight. Both were
critically acclaimed and well received by fans, but Spoon still
straddled the strange line between being a cult favorite and a
mainstream success. Nevertheless, in 2005 Spoon released
Gimme Fiction, an album that differs from their others in more
ways than one. Pounding, ominous piano. Sputtering, crackling
electic gutiars. Driving bass. This album haunts and builds an
atmosphere that lingers and smolders with supressed grandeur.
1. The Beast And Dragon, Adorned - The opening track sets the
mood for the album with the guitar and drums providing a steady
rhythm while the piano pounds in the foreground. Throughout
the song a fuzzy, distorded electric guitar comes in and out,
delivering a a series of crackling, whining riffs. Everything
in this song is restrained, with space being created by using
the electric guitar sparingly. The vocals and lyrics set up much of what is to come later, with
allusions to the mysterious "you" who is often brought up in the lyrics of the album. 4.4/5
2. The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine - This song begins with a lone electric guitar that is joined
shortly by a an acoustic guitar and drums. Again, these instruments along with the bass provide
a steady beating rhythm on which the piano and strings take the stage. In contrast to TBADA, the
song is a slow crescendo, with the strings and piano constantly building the atmosphere of the
song. The lyrics muse about a play, and the play's lead; Monsieur Valentine and his dulistic nature,
with Daniel's lyrically elegance in full play. This track is easily one of the best on the album.
4.5/5
3. I Turn My Camera On - The "hit" from this album. I Turn My Camera On is one of the few tracks
on the album to be primarily guitar driven, with the piano entirely left out. The interply between
the two guitars creates a tight, almost dance like quality that drives the song. The vocal are
delivered in a Jaggeresque falsetto that is not repeated anywhere else. The lyrics are subtly
ertoticized, with the "chorus":
"When I turn my feelings on
I turn my feeligns on inside
Feel like I'm gonna ignite
I saw them stars go off
I saw them stars go off at night
And they're looking alright"
All in all this song is certainly the most accessable on the album, and is one of the most catchy.
5/5
4. My Mathematical Mind - This song is the one that encapsulates best the sound of this record. It
begins with the bass and piano repeated a one cord octave riff that never ceases without the song.
The guitar from TBADA is backand in full force, with it's cosntant choking riffs bringing the song to
epic heights with the help of a second piano. Near the end of the song you can see what Spoon
would sound like as an arena rock band; huge, but in a way
completelydifferent from most "area rock" bands. 5/5
5. The Delicate Place - An acoustic guitar is the base of this song, repeating underneath the other
instruments throughout the song. The bass and electric guitar are used to again propell the song
toward the stars, slowly rising and then again dropping off to begin again, with the drums beating
like the heart of the song. 4.5/5
6. Sister Jack - Like I Turn My Camera On this song is one of the albums "hits" and for good
reason. It's infectious guitars play over a steady drumbeat with a tamborine and sparing hand
claps. The vocals are deliviered by Daniels overdubbing his voice, one singing in falsetto, and the
other with his typical flair. Out of all the songs on the album, this one, along with I Turn My
Camera On are the most catchy, sticking in your head for days after you here them.
7. I Summon You - This song is entirely acoustic guitars, drums, and bass. The song is very
repetitive, with the instruments simply repeating. The vocals are also repetive, with the same large
block of lyrics being sung twice. The lyrics contain again a bit of subtle ertoticism directed toward
the mysterious "you" who appears throughout the record. The sogn suffers from it's lack of a
defined chorus and from its repetitiveness. 3.5/5
8. The Infinite Pet - Starting out with an electronic drumbeat and fuzzy guitar riff the song almost
sounds like it could be a dance song before the familiar piano comes in the verse. Throughout the
song the interplay between three vocies and the electronic experimentation provide an interesting
break from the atmosphere built by the rest of the album,
but in the end it suffers from feeling slightly out of place. 3.5/5
9. Was It You - Was It You is alos a break of pace. It begins with a drum beat and bass riff with
slightly spooky electric guitars and effects coming in and out of focus in. The haunting atmosphere
is further build by the vocals and lyrics that relate the events of a night encounter, and the
question again being directed toward the "you":
"We was walking through the park
Trying to get home before too dark
Who was it that we saw that night
Was it you?
Someone doing something not right
Shocked to see us interrupting their delight
Who was it that we saw that night
Was it you?"
The song suffers from it's length, with the vocals providing a bit of interest while the song seems
to linger on longer than it should. 3.5/5
10. They Never Got You - This song brings us back to familiar territory. The electric guitars are
subdued over a steady drum beat while the lyrics warn the "you" again to keep a steady guard
against "them."
"Don't let it break
Don't let it start
Don't let em in
Don't go too far
And cover your tracks
Cover the path to the heart
Don't let those footholds start
And don't let no one in
Cause they never got you and you never got them
You
When you were breaking up
They was just waking up
And back in that place where you come from
Did it pay to play along
That's where I'm coming from
I'll roll it myself or just let it be
Cause I never got them and they never got me
No I never got them and they never got me"
The piano and electric gutiar slowly build the song, but never quite let it free, keeping it restrained.
In this case the song benefits. 4.5/5
11. Merchants of Soul - The final sogn on the album starts with a piano over a beat of drums and
handclaps while Daniels muses for the final time about himself and the "you" that reoccurs
throughout the album. The "them" refered to in They Never Got You could be seen as the
Merchants of Soul that pervade the final song on the album:
"Mixed up and lonely on the danger side
Ralph reed was driving
Said he wants to go all night
I made him wait, took my time to decide
And bent the desire
To get wise
The fiends are fiendin' outside
Merchants of soul so unkind
Oh yeah
Merchants of soul they don't mind
They take your soul I need mine"
The final song leaves the album on a very abrupt note, with the song cutting out in almost mid
progression. Compared to many of the other songs on the album this one is short, coming in at
2:49. It is not one of the strongest of the album, but its intriguing lyrics are a point of interest.
3.5/5
All in all, this album is one that Spoon should be proud of. Its atmoshpere is built through a group
of songs with repeated themes of the theater, the "you", and the "them" that help to create an
almost concept-album-ness cohesiveness that benefits the band's bigger and more ominous
sound. This album is easily one of the best albums Spoon has ever made. With a catalogue like
Spoon's, that's saying a lot.
