Taking A Leak: Spoon

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Yes yes yes yes yes.  Spoon really hasn't made a mistake since Girls Can Tell.  Everything they've released has been just flat-out excellent.  Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is no exception.

I've been loving the first leaked track, "The Ghost Of You Lingers," for a week or so.  Like "Small Stakes" before it, there's little more than an oddly-tuned piano and vocal effects.  Yet despite that spareness, "Ghost" is entirely compelling.  It builds momentum out of spare parts, like MacGyver.  It's Exhibit A of why they're so off-the-charts brilliant.

The other tunes on the album are just as great, if not quite so odd.  The grooves of "Rhythm & Soul" and "Finer Feelings" stand out, and the rest is standard-issue rollicking Spoon.  As intelligently conceived and executed as it gets.  There's not much else to say.

Where it sits in the discography is unclear.  I've concluded that Kill The Moonlight is their best album, though Gimme Fiction comes close, and likely exceeds Moonlight in sheer brilliance if not end result.  Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga definitely holds its own.  Whether it exceeds either of its predecessors won't be clear for a while.

But that's not entirely relevant anyway.  The important thing is that we all have another great Spoon album.  Highly recommended.