Spoon

Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Indie rock partially came about as a response to the overly pompous sound and vision of commercial rock: super sized arena pyrotechnics and albums stuffed with layers upon layers of excessive radio friendly overdubbing. Not to say that Spoon exhibits the lo-fi antithesis of production. In fact, they’ve dappled with far more studio refinement now than previous albums, even calling in the talents of producer and film scorer Jon Brion. However, every song is sprite and lean, like a middleweight fighter, brandishing muscle but only in the right places. In fact, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga will knock you out with the first four songs: the typical Spoon piano pounder “Don’t Make Me A Target, the hollow echoey dub of “The Ghost Of You Lingers”, the northern soul chimes and horns of “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”, and “Don’t You Evah” whose bass line recalls Prince’s Erotic City. Easily one the better albums of the year.