Spoon
They Want My Soul

Britt Daniel is kind of a wild card.

The 43-year-old frontman/chief songwriter of Austin, TX’s Spoon has spent over 20 years in music and is still as difficult as ever to peg down. Armed with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of music history and with talent oozing from every pore, Daniel has been one of indie rock’s most consistently surprising, consistently… consistent individuals. Whether he’s cameoing on Veronica Mars or collaborating with Dan Boeckner in Divine Fits, Daniel has an unmistakably unique style. Picture Marvin Gaye, Robert Pollard, and John Lennon fused into one and you’re getting close. In Spoon, Daniel has forged a way to channel his own voice and songwriting while collaborating with longtime partner Jim Eno (drums/producer), Eric Harvey (guitar/keys), and Rob Pope (bass). With a meticulous ear for production and Daniel’s tasteful writing, Spoon became, for what it’s worth, the most critically adored band of the 2000s.

The group’s eighth album, They Want My Soul, is out today on Loma Vista. Spoon’s move to the boutique, Universal-backed label (home to St. Vincent and Cut Copy) marks a new beginning; for the entirety of the millennium the band worked with Merge records, but it was time for a switch. The reason? Nothing in particular, says Daniel. It was a way to keep things fresh for the group. With a change in label and the four-year gestation period since 2010’s moody, criminally overlooked Transference, the door was wide open for LP No. 8. Would Spoon come back with the poppy follow up to Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga that fans hoped for in Transference? Perhaps the addition of Alex Fischel (instrumentalist and Britt Daniel’s bandmate in Divine Fits) would mark a change in sound? Keep reading to find out!!!

They Want My Soul starts with “Rent I Pay,” Spoon’s most booming opener since “The Beast and Dragon, Adored.” Daniel howls as Jim Eno lays down the gnarliest-sounding beat you’ll hear this year, courtesy of producers Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT) and Joe Chiccarelli (The Strokes). The rest of the album’s top half is similarly glorious. “Inside Out” is perhaps the most pleasantly unfamiliar moment on the album, in which Alex Fischel and Eric Harvey trade synth lines under Daniel’s soulful croon. The song channels the vulnerability heard on 2010’s Transference but through more optimistic eyes as Daniel gushes, “There’s only you I need.” “Inside Out” is a stunning achievement and proof that Spoon are still finding new ways to explore their strengths. With its propulsive acoustic guitars and crafty cut-up production, “Knock, Knock, Knock” is another delight from the record’s first half.

Unfortunately, things get a bit dicey in the LP’s second side. Bogged down by “Outlier” (imagine a Radiohead B- or C-side circa 2007) and “I Just Don’t Understand” (an awkward, inessential Ann Margaret cover), They Want My Soul starts to lose steam until its closer, “New York Kiss.” A track that could easily be mistaken for Daniel’s synthier, glammier band, Divine Fits, “New York Kiss” is possibly the best song on the album. Backed by an unrelenting Jim Eno beat and Fischel’s glitzy synths, Daniel reminisces about “the first time you told me by the neon sign” in a thrilling, honest song that could only come from Spoon in 2014.

They Want My Soul is by no means a great album. But it’s a very good album, the kind of Spoon album critics will inevitably call “consistent.” Although it lacks the razor-sharp edge, the will to surprise that Daniel once flaunted, for better or worse Spoon sound like they’ve finally perfected being Spoon.