Spoon

Spoon's rhythmic edges and spare arrangements frame songwriter Britt Daniel as a latter day Joe Jackson -- smart enough to know heavy bass can make pop music strut, but too self-aware to offer up any confessions. Daniel's choice to eschew coy insinuation and cut right to the chase is a welcome surprise on his band's impeccable sixth LP, even if the pro-cocaine "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case" is a bit inelegant. When the tunes are as stylishly-dressed as ever, and really say something, as on "The Underdog" and Stones-inflected "Finer Feelings," it's some of Spoon's shrewdest stuff to date.

After a rocky start – two so-so records followed by a major-label dumping – Spoon have
been on a modest roll for the past half decade, turning out three good-to-great albums
between '01 and '05 that dramatically beefed up their fan base. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga might be
Spoon's commercial breakthrough, doing for them what Good News did for Modest Mouse,
but for certain it's one of the Austin, Texas, trio's finest records. It sounds like S... More >