Time to move onto part two of three of my Spoon artist review. This review is for Spoon's 2007 release "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" (great title, I know), the album that made me fall in love with them . The album received an overall Metascore of 84, with a 91 from Entertainment Weekly and an 80 from Rolling Stone (much better than the 60 Rolling Stone gave "Kill the Moonlight"). Although Spoon's rating from "Kill the Moonlight" drops a bit, they still fall within the "great" standing with "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga". They still keep their unique style, balancing a rock and ambient styling. The opening song, "Don't Make Me A Target," really eases you into their style with a slow rock beat that reminds you of the Spoon you heard in "Killing the Moonlight." The lyrics in this album are still creative with verses such as "Here come a man from the star/ We don't know why he goes so far/ And he keep on marching along beating his drum." Spoon still manages to keep this song relatively minimalistic with their lyrics. Its not a huge ballad song, but the song stretches itself out with various instrumental segments (one piano piece in particular that speeds up the tempo of the song) and simple, yet deep lyrics.
The pace of the album keeps sort of a medium pace for the next few songs and then gets a little groovy with "Don't You Evah." This song for me really expresses who Spoon is as a band. They have fun playing music; they mess around with their sound, but still keep true to who they are; they care about making music and love it. Lyrics such as "Bet you never think it feels right/ Famous-sounding words make your head feel light" really express how Spoon feels (or so I can imagine). They experiment with their sound constantly and some times its sounds a little weird at first; you don't really feel like they're still Spoon; you don't feel like they're keeping true to themselves. In the end though, its still the same old Spoon I love to listen to and their "famous-sounding words make [my] head feel light" (cheesy, cheesy, I know, I know).
To really emphasize how much Spoon likes to experiment with their music, you have to listen to "Eddie's Ragga." At the beginning of the song there's a few sound effects and some synthesizing. Throughout the song, the sound effects drop out, but the synthesizing creeps in every now and again like a ghost. Furthermore, Daniel's sings two different tracks instead of having a back-up vocalist which gives the song a sort of eerie feel. The double voice over of Daniel really bring his style of singing out and this is really his song of emphasis on the album. "Eddie's Ragga" leads into a trumpet accompanied song, "The Underdog," which really gives Spoon that alternative rock feel. However, right after this, Spoon plays another sort of "out there" experimental song, "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case." This song has many voice over tracks with Daniel, much like in "Eddie's Ragga." This song, if any on the album, has a very minimal amount of lyrics, with only six lines of lyrics that are repeated throughout the song. The instrumentals within the song are very diverse and include a few instruments that aren't common to the band (a sitar-esque instrument comes in towards the end of the track).
The ninth track on the song definitely shows that Spoon can be more complex lyrically. "Finer Feelings" talks about how many people, lacking love in their lives, often look for it in other places. In concerns to this song, they look for it through commercialism: "Sometimes I think that I'll find a love/ One that's gonna change my heart/ I'll find it in Commercial Appeal/ And then this heartache will get chased away." This verses make it seem as though this song is really personal to Daniel. He makes it sound as though he's been looking for love everywhere and then suddenly, when he "was dreaming in the driver's seat/ When the right words just came to [him]/ And all [his] finer feelings came up." Although commercial appeal could stand for a material love, it may also be the case that "Commercial Appeal" is a sort of code word for a person. Spoon really pours themselves into this song, much more so than any of their other songs. The personal tone, however, is not solely within "Finer Feelings," but there is also a very personal touch in the final song of the album, "Black Like Me." The sole line that expresses this is repeated several times throughout the song: "I'm in need of someone to take care of me tonight."
Although Spoon tends to successfully have very minimalistic lyrics like in "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case," in this album they show that they can also have very personal and complex lyrical songs like "Finer Feelings" and "Black Like Me." This album doesn't have the same vast diversity in playing style and sound like "Kill the Moonlight", Spoon manages to find a tone that fits them and they seem to not be experimenting around as much. However, this experimental aspect of Spoon that has really helped them to stand out, has not completely disappeared and can be seen in songs like "Eddie's Ragga" (which would have to be my favorite on the album). Again, although weaker than "Kill the Moonlight," Spoon still produces a strong album and continues to produce quality music. Overall, I'll have to give Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga an 88.
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