Album of the week: They Want My Soul, by Spoon
Is there anything more stressful these days than finding affordable rent? Here we are in the wake of the economic crisis, the first generation in generations who can expect to make less than our parents. Medication is everywhere, but who can sleep? Everything is expensive, everyone is mercenary, and there's a sneaky, insidious suspicion that life is meaningless. This is Spoon's sad world and, sadly, it's a familiar one.
Spoon
Loma Vista
Is there anything more stressful these days than finding affordable rent? Here we are in the wake of the economic crisis, the first generation in generations who can expect to make less than our parents. Medication is everywhere, but who can sleep? Everything is expensive, everyone is mercenary, and there's a sneaky, insidious suspicion that life is meaningless. This is Spoon's sad world and, sadly, it's a familiar one.
In the hands of Spoon, however, that dissatisfaction becomes great art. The Texas-based quintet's eighth album, They Want My Soul, is alternately gentle and raw, shimmering and slamming, but always honest and observant in the face of modern malaise. Twenty years into their career, Spoon have never felt fresher or more lucid.
Musically, they're channeling a mouthful. Rainy Taxi is Rolling Stones redux, with hints of Dylan and the Velvet Underground. On the aforementioned Rent I Pay, Britt Daniel emits a series of hazy "oo-la-las" that sound just like Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles. Do You (the album's best song, along with Outlier and I Just Don't Understand) has a Californian Tom Petty vibe. There's humour too: "I remember when you walked out of Garden State/Cause you had taste, you had taste/You had no time to waste."
But the album works as a cohesive statement, weaving together all these iconic rock strands in a way that's nostalgic but also new. It's rare for bands today to make a successful statement about modern life that's neither ironic nor idiotic. Spoon have done just that. Somehow in the midst of a verdant, unbroken career, They Want My Soul feels like a comeback.