July 11, 2007:
Spoon, perhaps the greatest American band of the ’00s, is a dissident in the studio, for its record-making methodology is counterintuitive to the common practices of its 21st-century peers. It nips and tucks the places that others would normally bulk up, disassembles the structural conceits that are prone to sky-high ostentation, and is an unorthodox decision-maker when it comes to arrangements. Take, for example, “The Underdog,” the catchiest song and first single from the band’s sixth LP, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. It’s a dazzling little pop nugget, one that manages stylistic allusions to both Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” and the Beatles’ “Got to Get You into My Life,” but its arrangement is streamlined and subversive: pieces of the mix drop out when least expected and big-music build-ups turn out to be nothing more than strategic teases; we’re often left to contend with nothing more than a sprinkling of metallic percussion, peppy horns, and/or acoustic guitar strums. A less tactful band would have stumbled upon the song’s hook and shot it straight to the stars, cocooned in layers of unnecessary sound, and you could hardly blame them for it — pop songs this hot practically scream for the wall-of-sound treatment. But in refusing to go the obvious route, Spoon fashions a fresh perspective on an otherwise familiar undertaking. MORE
