Yesterday I wrote a small piece about Spoon and their excellent single Written in Reverse. After digging in to my music I started to recall just how much I listened to Gimme Fiction when I first picked it up and why I recently put it back into heavy rotation.
Gimme Fiction is a thoroughly fantastic album, the kind that you listen to the point of exhaustion, then pick it up months or years down the line and it rings fresh with renewed vibrancy and resonance. Released in 2005, the album was a critical success across the board, getting enthusiast reviews from all concerned. Like I mentioned in yesterday's brief post, Metacritic titled them the act of the decade due to their consistently high marks. This album was another in a string of near-flawless endeavors put out by a band that seemingly could do no wrong. One could surmise that they were not long for the Indie-band label they'd been saddled with, yet they have not now nor then broken through to the mainstream in a massive way, which is curious. On the surface it would seem that they'd have no problem becoming hugely popular; they've certainly become a giant draw at festivals. Furthermore, there's no stand-offish nature to them, no sense of quirky-for-the-sake-of-quirky that keeps so many bands out of the mainstream. They were the quintessential underground band - massive following and just on the verge of breaking in a big way.
Spoon is a band that is, at times, strangely normal. The songs on Gimme Fiction are very natural feeling, with a sense of one foot in front of the other, making the move as it comes in order song writing. Maybe I'm not describing this properly - what I mean to convey is the sense that the songs here are very logical and understandable, and their outstanding quality is what makes them unusual. It's odd or perhaps striking when a band can simply write great songs and let them be, especially in what is perceived to be this modern age of over-production and non-stop tinkering.
In a world of Georgre Lucas-esque, Kanye West-ian ego mania and detailing, the songs on Gimme Fiction stand out due to their slight nature. While the album is, of course, full of piano plinks and guitar plunks, vocal lines ebbing and flowing over wide-open pianos, there is still a minimalist nature at hand. From the opening, dry buzz of the guitar descending into The Beast And Dragon Adored to the full band popping in behind in a low rumble of piano, bass and drums, it all feels simultaneously clean and dusty. Singer/guitarist Britt Daniel's voice is wonderfully grainy, the stuff of rock & roll generations past. He sings, barks and lilts over the band plodding along, bleating about believing in rock and roll. Sister Jack is a fun, blaring take on hand claps and stop-and-go choruses that make your foot tap no matter the occasion. My Mathematical Mind is a momentous, rolling number that plows along with a thumping bass and a piano part that conveys a grand scale that Daniel wails over with gusto. It's a great song that you may have heard, unfortunately through the guise of marketing - it was prominently featured in a series of car ads I won't describe here.
Another example of a superb song on Gimme Fiction that saw widespread commercial use is the funky, Prince-inspired I Turn My Camera On, which again shows that stripped down attitude despite the fully formed feel of the song. As I alluded to in yesterday's post, this song is the definition of restraint, drawing power from the energy the group has to hold in check. It's a great song and one can certainly understand, if wince only slightly, to see it used in everything from episodes of The Simpsons to the procedural Bones. Nothing robs a little essence of a song more than seeing it used by producers to add weight or "fun" to a scene. Curiously, significant portions of this entire album were lifted and restructured to serve as the soundtrack to the film adaptation of Stranger Than Fiction. In this case, however, it was with Daniel working intentionally with the sound designer for the film, editing and removing vocals to make them fit in proper context. Done in this manner, it actually serves the film quite well, and the passion of the band fits the quirky story. It's a great film, by the way, expect a write up in the future.
Gimme Fiction is excellent, start to finish. As I stated earlier, I listened to this album so much I actually grew numb to it for a while, only to rediscover it recently. It still sounds fantastic, six years later, all the nervous energy and impeccably crafted songs sounding fresh. If, for some reason, you still are unfamiliar with this great band, you would be doing fine to start with this album.
Gimme Fiction is a thoroughly fantastic album, the kind that you listen to the point of exhaustion, then pick it up months or years down the line and it rings fresh with renewed vibrancy and resonance. Released in 2005, the album was a critical success across the board, getting enthusiast reviews from all concerned. Like I mentioned in yesterday's brief post, Metacritic titled them the act of the decade due to their consistently high marks. This album was another in a string of near-flawless endeavors put out by a band that seemingly could do no wrong. One could surmise that they were not long for the Indie-band label they'd been saddled with, yet they have not now nor then broken through to the mainstream in a massive way, which is curious. On the surface it would seem that they'd have no problem becoming hugely popular; they've certainly become a giant draw at festivals. Furthermore, there's no stand-offish nature to them, no sense of quirky-for-the-sake-of-quirky that keeps so many bands out of the mainstream. They were the quintessential underground band - massive following and just on the verge of breaking in a big way.
Gimme Fiction is excellent, start to finish. As I stated earlier, I listened to this album so much I actually grew numb to it for a while, only to rediscover it recently. It still sounds fantastic, six years later, all the nervous energy and impeccably crafted songs sounding fresh. If, for some reason, you still are unfamiliar with this great band, you would be doing fine to start with this album.
