Spoon
Kill The Moonlight
Merge
Never to let a year slip by, Austin, Texas indie darlings Spoon quickly return with more lo-fi, syncopated rock for us to savor. Not fettered by trends in the industry, the band cater to straight-ahead, but adventurous noise. After the bubbling, ready-to-burst opener “Small Stakes” sets the tone, the record settles into the piano-driven singalong “The Way We Get By” which sounds like eerily similar to Ben Folds. Before you can say pigeonhole, the band suddenly veers into the groove-rock of “Something to Look Forward To.”
There’s always a preconception about indie-rock kids and their highbrow ways, but with Kill The Moonlight, it’s hard to imagine that even those stiffs wouldn’t be dancing. After the electric murmurs of “Paper Tiger” provide an uneasy, but welcome breakdown halfway through, the rock n’ roll returns for side two. In a much bluesier guise, as evident in “All the Pretty Girls Go to the City,” Spoon makes nearly effortless transitions up until the record’s drifting swan song, “Vittorio E.” Though acts like Superchunk have welcomed Spoon with open arms on tour, the latter sounds almost nothing like the groups its lumped in with. This aspect of originality is quite appreciated in this era of overhyped “indie” bands like The Strokes and The White Stripes.
Spoon: http://www.spoontheband.com
