Music Review: Spoon, They Want My Soul

By Noreen Sobczyk

Guess what? This review isn’t going to compare Spoon to their possible influences, nor will the author jack herself off by citing said influences with hipper than thou references. Spoon has been, at the very least, a good band (with moments of a great band) for a long time. You may or may not know that yet, but They Want My Soul is worthy of your time and money. Knowing how cool you are by “getting” an author’s dazzling musical knowledge has nothing to do with that. The short version of this review is that the lyrics are clever, witty, and at times acerbic, and the music is interesting, melodic, simple yet layered, and other bits are more complex or partially in conflict with the general melody, but never cacophonous. It’s worth buying and unpeeling the onion skin of lyrical meanings at your leisure—or not. The album sounds great and stands alone whether or not one cares to excavate lyrics like a scholar examining cave paintings.

Britt Daniels states on “Do You”—a full lush song with a driving beat and hand claps—“You tip toe for ages, but lose yourself” and “Do you feel it black and blue?” And the full lush tune ends with a solitary tone. They Want My Soul seems to be about losing parts of yourself and finding parts of yourself that are steadfast and inherent. It’s about cycles of loss and questions and relationships waxing and waning in an existential merry go ‘round. It speaks of the perceptions of two people given the same situation and one of those people may be you years from tomorrow. Or even as soon as tomorrow. Lyrics one may assume are about a lover are possibly about family or self.

The first track on They Want My Soul sums up all of our collective emotional baggage and bullshit and pain with one simple but heartfelt phrase and song title: “Rent I Pay.” And to paraphrase the lyrics: “Every time I hear knock knock knock I know that it’s you . . . and I see you and you’re shaking oh you’re breaking so I put down the poison pen and it starts all over again.” It is a confessional lyric that might be about a frustrated love affair or might be about our relationship with life and ourselves.

Perhaps it’s a good thing for this album that people listen to music plugged into their iPods or that headphones are now an in vogue fashion accessory hawked by rappers gone mogul, because a lot of the sounds on this album only become part of the conscious listening experience using newfangled (or good old-fashioned) headphones. Effects that sound like water trickling over rocks and eroding parts of them ever so slowly become audible and important to themes on the album. Or a jagged plink plonk on a piano like a curious toddler might emphasize exploration, or maybe a banging born of frustration. All of these sounds are part of the experience of this album and of coming to grips with yourself for what you once were and are now. It doesn’t mourn, nor come off as pretentious, but simply accepts and states things as they are. It’s about how others see us through their eyes, how we see ourselves through their lens, and how we see ourselves when we’re alone, that type of alone that seems as if it may never leave.

“You tip toe through ages losing yourself” Daniels acquiesces on “Do You” and states “You’re going to take another chunk of me, yeah just go” on “Let Me Be Mine.” He’s asking you as well as himself seemingly every time. And on the same track “auction off what you love” might refer to the music business or making money via art in general, or existential angst, and it’s the philosophy of ages, but everything old is new again. And that goes for an older rocker’s self examination on a fabulous album as well as overpriced headphones hawked by erstwhile rappers.

They Want My Soul was released on August 5 by Loma Vista.

Tour Dates:
08/29/14 – Ithaca, NY – State Theatre
08/30/14 – Montreal, QC – Parc Jean Drapeau *
08/31/14 – Philadelphia, PA – Made in America Festival
09/02-03/14 – Washington, DC – Lincoln Theatre +
09/05/14 – Raleigh, NC – Hopscotch Music Festival +
09/06/14 – Norfolk, VA – Norva +
09/07/14 – Boston, MA – Boston Calling Music Festival
09/10/14 – New York, NY – Central Park @
09/11/14 – Pittsburgh, PA – Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead +
09/12/14 – Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room +
09/13/14 – Hamilton, ON – Supercrawl Festival
09/14/14 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Theatre +
09/16/14 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre #
09/17/14 – Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theatre #
09/18/14 – Madison, WI – Orpheum Theatre #
09/19/14 – Minneapolis, MN – State Theatre #
09/20/14 – St. Louis, MO – Pageant #
09/21/14 – Lawrence, KS – Liberty Hall #
09/23/14 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom #
10/05/14 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Music Festival
10/12/14 – Austin, TX – Austin City Limits Music Festival
11/01/14 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso
11/02/14 – Hamburg, Germany – Uebel & Gefarlich
11/03/14 – Basel, Switzerland – Kaserne Reithalle
11/04/14 – Cologne, Germany – Luxor
11/05/14 – Ghent, Belgium – Vooruit
11/06/14 – Paris, France – Trabendo
11/07/14 – London, UK – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire * special guests of Arcade Fire
^ with Dale Watson
+ with Hamilton Leithauser
@ with !!!