Spoon - 'Kill The Moonlight' (12XU)
4/5
By: Austin Louis Ray
Pudding, chilli, ice cream... What do these all have in common? A spoon makes them better; yes, that wonderful little invention that perfectly complements the fork while making several food products easier to devour. In a musical sense, some Spoon would make a lot of people's lives better, too - though many just don't know it yet.
'Kill the Moonlight', however, could see the responsible trio raise their presently limited profile tenfold, the exquisitely-crafted pop melodies, with a little grit under the fingernails for good measure, not failing once.
And even when the grit isn't there, and Spoon's exultant sound takes over full-throttle, it tends to overcompensate for lyrical subject-matter that's far from joyful. On 'The Way We Get By', the exuberant, bouncy piano keeps things somewhat cheerful... Well, that is until the listener pays attention to the lyrics: 'We get high in back seats of cars / We break into mobile homes / ... We rarely practice discern / We make love to some weird sin'. It's not until the third or fourth listen that anyone will notice that the words are less than noble; the song is just too good. And, even after the realisation, it doesn't matter - the album improves with every listen.
Similarly, on 'Someone Something', when the composition begins (and, for a second, one is inclined to think it's actually David Bowie's 'Changes' blasting from the player), the light-hearted piano accompaniment should let it be known that the song is a sad one, lyrics-wise. 'I want a connection to / Someone, something / ... Been missing it all my life / Someone, something'. But, once again, the piece delivers - and no-one minds that they're getting the wool pulled over their eyes.
And, when the boys from Spoon do decide to get a little bit dirtier, they still manage to pull it off with much composure. 'Jonathan Fisk' sounds like it could've been written in 1979, had Elvis Costello been a little angrier and decided to use distorted guitar instead of piano and organ the day he penned 'Oliver's Army'. Despite such an observation, though, Spoon are hardly ones to wears their influences on their sleeve; the band simply has a charming way of occasionally prompting the listener to ponder, 'Have I heard this before,' while putting in just enough of a creative twist to make something new and all its own.
An album such as this begs for a fitting ending - and 'Vittorio E.' does it just right. The song's plaintive acoustic guitar, cutely coupled with gentle strings and some barely-there keys, soothes the listener into wind-down mode following eleven tracks that will pump up even the more lethargic of characters into a sweaty daze.
In life, sometimes it just feels like something's missing. The soup runs through the fork; the silence is deafening. Whichever of the two, one thing can fix either problem: reaching for the Spoon.
Artists in this article: Spoon
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