Spoon Continues to Impress With They Want my Soul

In the realm of bands that deserve to be more popular than they are, Spoon might take the cake.  Though they’ve been around since the nineties, their biggest single, 2007’s The Underdog, is best known for being featured in the films 17 Again, I Love You, Man and Horrible Bosses.  Regardless of their frequent song appearances in movies as well as shows, the Austin based quintet remains one of the most underrated bands in rock, so much so that review aggrigate website Metacritic named them the top artist of the decade.

It should go without saying then that They Want My Soul (Spoons latest album since 2010’s Transference and their first with recent label Loma Vista), sounds slightly more experimental than Spoon’s usual output. An apt comparison would be Wilco’s 2011 album The Whole Love.  Soul is at it’s best when it ventures out of frontman Britt Daniel and company’s usual trappings.  Key tracks include a Black Keys-esque cover of the Ann-Margret song I Just Don’t Understand, and the synth tinged Outlier, which sounds nothing like Spoon has ever done before, yet is one of the best track on the album.

Tracks like the first two singles, Rent I Pay and Do You sound more like what fans have come to expect from Spoon and are still great songs, but later tracks Let Me Be Mine and New York Kiss are where Soul shines brightest.  If this is the type if quality fans can continue to expect from Spoon, then hopefully it won’t take another four years for their next LP.