A Short Column About Music 11.13.08: Spoon - Girls Can Tell Posted by Andrew Moll on 11.13.2008
Things everybody would say, believing is hard, believing is art. Things everybody should know, the end will come slow. And love breaks your heart.
I don't know if it's my job, my personal preferences, or what but for some reason this year I have listened to far less music than I did last year. I was able to listen to 163 albums that were released last year alone and I'll be lucky to get to half that this year. In fact, I think I'm halfway to that number as things currently stand. I'm not even sure it's only because last year was better or something(which I think it was, but that's not the point). Maybe I've just gotten more interested in other things, and I'm not able to dedicate that much time to music listening again. Whatever the reason, I kind of feel guilty about it, like I'm shortchanging myself by not doing all I can to listen to astonishingly high amounts of music. I don't love the music any less, I'm just a more well-rounded person. Or something like that. Luckily, the music will always be there when I need it.
They spent the first part of their career sounding like a lot of bands that had come before. It wasn't until they minimalized everything and made their own sound that they became arguably the most consistent band in rock and roll. This week, we look at the first of a series of albums that proved their worth in the rock world.
Spoon - Girls Can Tell
Tracklisting:
1. Everything Hits At Once
2. Believing Is Art
3. Me and the Bean
4. Lines in the Suit
5. The Fitted Shirt
6. Anything You Want
7. Take a Walk
8. 1020 AM
9. Take the Fifth
10. This Book is a Movie
11. Chicago at Night
It seems that for years, people have been looking for the next great rock band, the band that will put out classic albums each time out and be heralded as the best that we can produce. A lot of bands have been promoted as such, some worthy of the consideration, some not. But there is a very real possibility that the best rock band in the world has been right under our noses for a long time. Spoon was formed in 1993 in Austin, Texas by guitarist/singer Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno. Originally, the band started out with a sound that was similar in many ways to the Pixies, with short songs, jagged guitars and a soft/loud/soft dynamic. On the band's debut album Telephono, released in 1996, songs like "All the Negatives Have Been Destroyed" and "The Government Darling" are energetic songs that take a good but of influence from the punk bands of the 1980s while also sounding similar to the Pavement-esque sound that had taken over indie rock at the time. They weren't completely original, but showed a lot of promise for future records.
The Soft Effects EP would see the band continue using their previous sound but at the same time incorporating more pop influences, and it's the first glimpse of where the band would go in the coming years. Daniel was showing off his ability to write catchy pop-rock songs, but still maintaining somewhat of a hard rock edge. That edginess would come in handy upon the 1998 release of the band's major-label debut A Series of Sneaks. The album didn't meet Elektra Records expectations, so the band was unceremoniously dropped just four months after the album's release. Needless to say, the band was pissed about the situation. They took it out on their former A&R man Ronn Laffitte by releasing a two-song single, featuring "The Agony of Laffitte" and "Laffitte Don't Fail Me Now," showing that they at least had a small sense of humor about the situation. The single takes the label to task, with lyrics like "It's like I knew two of you, man /The one before and after we shook hands."
Perhaps spurred on by the Elektra situation, Spoon would go on to record their first classic, 2001's Girls Can Tell. The album starts out and light on instruments but heavy on groove with "Everything Hits At Once", a sparse song that is possibly the first example of Britt Daniel being an excellent songwriter. The song is led by a simple keyboard line and the occasional guitar groove, but it all works with the lyrics that Daniel sings with understated quality. As he sings in the chorus, "Everything hits at once/What we needs is just what we wants/I go to sleep but think that you're next to me." It's a song about longing for someone, but it never gets sappy or overly emotional. There is an almost eerie sense to the song, but it never overwhelms the song. Instead, it's simply Daniel telling his tale of missing that certain someone. Things remain simple on "Believing is Art." Daniel starts the song by singing softly "Things everybody would say/Believing is hard/Believing is art/Things everybody should know/The end will come slow/And love breaks your heart" as the guitar, drums and keyboard from "Everything Hits At Once" continue. But this time, everything begins to pick up steam, as if the band's restlessness has gotten the better of them and they're waiting for the moment to be set free. The tension simmers until the band is playing with full-steam ahead and Daniel is letting out the same lyrics from the beginning of the song. Once again the band lets a killer groove take over the song and it works to near perfection. The minimalist approach works for Spoon, as they just let Daniel's natural melodies lead the way.
"Everything Hits At Once"
Things get lighter on "Me and the Bean" as Daniel sings of a girl that is "beautiful to me." The piano line that drives the song is instantly catchy and keeps the album from getting bogged down in the tension of the two previous songs. In fact Allmusic said that the song "suggests the direction alternative/indie rock should have taken after Nirvana's implosion." Daniel is able to fit some genuine emotion into the song, with the touching lyric "I have your blood inside my heart," which comes off as far more romantic than it may read due to Daniel's delivery of the line. Daniel is able to again show his progression as a lyricist on "Lines in the Suit" singing "How come I feel so washed up/At such a such a tender age now." The song is another groove-laden track, and it's becoming obvious that this version of Spoon had found their comfort zone: Pop-rock songs with simple, catchy melodies and grooves that any band would kill for. The next track, "The Fitted Shirt" is a simply stunning track, one that is funny, kick-ass, catchy, and, yes, groovy. The song is really nothing more than Daniel lamenting that fact that things aren't really what they used to be, and uses his dad's wardrobe as the means for his expression. Daniel sings, "One day it'll take/And they'll start to make/Shirts that fit right/Til then I suppose/I still got Dad's clothes/And that's alright."
"The Fitted Shirt"
The light and poppy "Anything You Want" is next with a almost sugary-sweet melody, and is followed by "Take a Walk" which brings back some edginess to the band, all while keeping the groove consistent. In fact, one can see it relating back to the Laffitte situation, with lyrics like "And now that song's been sung/It's just the cost of what's been done/The cost of taking a walk with you." It's only a two minute song, but one that feels much longer with it's big jam to end the song as the guitars show how they shouldn't be overlooked when it comes to why Spoon has been so good for so long. The acoustic ballad "1020 AM" follows, and it's probably the most straight-forward song on the album. Daniel sings "Cause I remember everything you did/And I remember everything you did/Everything you were, everything you said /Yeah I remember everything you did/1020 AM. 1020 AM/When will I ever see you again." It sounds almost like a song you're likely to hear on classic rock radio, but it never sounds dated. The song is another short one, but it packs a lot of emotion into its two minutes. The harmony when Daniel sings the aforementioned lines is damn near heartbreaking and shows that Spoon can impact people as well as any other band. The next track "Take the Fifth" is similar to the recent Spoon hit "The Underdog" in that it takes a bit from some classic Motown hits of the past. It's the type of the song that forces you to move along with it, as its struts along. The song is all bouncy melody, but Spoon doesn't need much more than that. One could go into the deep meaning of the song, and what exactly "the fifth: is, but in my opinion that may very well take the fun out of the song. "Take the Fifth" is a damn fun romp that provides too much of a good time to worry about the lyrics. (No offense, Britt.)
After that light jaunt, is the moody instrumental "This Book is a Movie", and that describes the song perfectly, as it feels like it comes straight from the soundtrack to a 1970s cop movie or something. The bass work on this is tremendous, but like most of the album, simple. Therein lies the genius of Spoon, how they are able to make the minimal into something beautiful. The band didn't need an orchestra to make an emotional instrumental near the end of the record. Guitar, bass and drums were good enough. It's also the perfect lead-in for the tense yet airy closer "Chicago at Night." It certainly sounds like Chicago, that's for sure, as it's bluesy and mysterious, with the rhythm guitars hanging in the background, floating around the song. That mysterious sense is in the lyrics as well, with Daniel singing "Now when she went to Chicago that night she faced a wall/And she woke up outside with all those leaves in her mouth and felt the pall/And all night the rain came on down/But then she'd never been to Chicago at night/Before the fall/And it don't stop, not at all/It falls all around/In the city/Hits the ground." The song keeps the same volume and beat all the way through, never changing a thing. The tense quality of the song wraps the album up perfectly, since the band still seemed to be in a haze after dealing with Elektra Records. Even with the lighter pop songs, eventually things came back to a sense of uncertainty, and that's captured all through "Chicago at Night."
"Chicago at Night"
But Girls Can Tell would prove to be a big success for the band, selling more copies than their previous albums had combined. It also had to give the band a sense of vindication, as they proved how good a band they were. Spoon have released three more albums since then, with each being more commercially successful than the last. In fact, after the release of 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the band got on nearly every television show imaginable, including Saturday Night Live. And it's always good to see a quality finally get the recognition they deserve. But this current version of Spoon started with Girls Can Tell. It's not the type of album that will blow you away with emotion or theatrics. Rather, it will slowly seep into with its understated qualities. Each note and lyric is precise and there are no wasted seconds on the album. It's eleven songs of pop-rock greatness, brought to you by the best and most consistent band going today.
