They Want My Soul Spoon

• 1 Rent I Pay 03:09
• 2 Inside Out 05:02
• 3 Rainy Taxi 03:58
• 4 Do You 03:33
• 5 Knock Knock Knock 04:39
• 6 Outlier 04:22
• 7 They Want My Soul 03:22
• 8 I Just Don't Understand 02:38
• 9 Let Me Be Mine 03:26
• 10 New York Kiss 03:27
• Total Runtime 37:36

Info for They Want My Soul

Spoon returns with their long-awaited eighth studio album, „They Want My Soul“. The 10-track record is Spoon’s eighth since they formed 21 years ago and put out the generally “ok” debut “Telephono.” The six that followed have been generally incredible, including the punk “A Series of Sneaks” and masterfully clever “Gimme Fiction.” The most recent, 2010’s “Transference,” was well-received and had a number of strong tracks (“Is Love Forever?” “Trouble Comes Running,” etc.) and fantastic, inventive production, but was missing some of that patented Spoon energy or the most part and comes in low in my personal ranking.

But, from the sounds of it, “They Want My Soul” is going to be killer. Frontman Britt Daniel’s time in the kraut-rocky Divine Fits with Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner seems to have reinvigorated Daniel’s sense of invention as the tracks on TWMS are fresh, poppy, and full of the life that “Transference” was missing. On first listen, “Do You” is a standout with near-twee backup vocals behind a charmingly abrasive chorus “Do you? / Do you? / Do you?”

High quality production has always been a part of Spoon’s pedigree and TWMS, produced by Joe Chiccarelli (The Shins, My Morning Jacket, Minus the Bear) and Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT, Tame Impala), is no exception. The band have come a long way from their early days and the record shows off a band matured, sure of themselves and capable. Of course, they were always willing and able to try new things, but tracks like “I Just Don’t Understand” (part my-baby-don’t-love-me-blues, part piano jazz courtesy of new keyboardist Alex Fischel) and “Rainy Taxi” (a moody five-minute almost-blues with a Spoon-y twist) show the band leaving what you might call their “comfort zone,” but without actually losing any comfort. On the other hand, tracks like opener “Rent I Pay” remind us of exactly what endeared us to the band so much as they definitively found their sound years ago.

Daniel admits that a blues influence is present, citing The Rolling Stones as a big influence, going through “a phase” with them before recording the album. And AC/DC too, though I can’t say I quite hear that influence as well.

But don’t just read my words about it, go listen to “They Want My Soul” right now on iTunes Radio. The album’s out August 5th on Loma Vista, Spoon’s first record on the label, and it’s available for pre-order in all sorts of bundles here. Plus, check out the videos below for “Do You” and “Rent I Pay,” the latter of which is supposedly “unofficial,” but comes straight from the band.

Britt Daniel, vocals, guitar
Jim Eno, drums
Eric Harvey, keyboard, guitar, percussion, backing vocals
Rob Pope, bass, guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Alex Fischel, keyboard, guitar

Spoon
With a heady blend of precision punk and serpentine classic rock (the band has drawn comparisons to everyone from the Pixies and Sonic Youth to Elvis Costello and Tom Petty), enigmatic, Texas-based indie pop outfit Spoon went from underground press darlings to one of the genre's premier commercially and critically acclaimed alternative rock acts. Formed in Austin by singer/guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno, Spoon released its debut EP, Nefarious, on the small Texas imprint Fluffer Records in 1994, eventually re-recording three of the songs for its 1996 full-length debut, Telephono, for Matador. The album was noisy, hook-filled, and generally well-received, but it wasn't until 1997's Soft Effects EP that the group began to hone in on the tight, minimalist pop that would become its forte. A brief and tumultuous affair with Elektra Records began in 1998 with the release of A Series of Sneaks, and quickly ended after the band was dropped in the midst of an internal company shakeup (the record was reissued in 2002 on Merge with two bonus tracks that chronicled the group's disappointment with major-label politics).

It was with prominent indie label Merge that the band would go on to carve out its niche in the increasingly widening modern rock mainstream, specifically with Girls Can Tell (2001) and Kill the Moonlight (2002) (the latter spawned the single "The Way We Get By," which appeared on the popular teen drama The O.C.), both of which found the group taking a more adventurous approach with its sound. Released in 2005, Gimme Fiction soared even higher, debuting at number 44 on the Billboard charts and selling over 160,000 copies, while 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga made it to number ten and sold over 300,000 copies in the U.S., topping nearly every major critic's year-end list. Spoon, who by this time had become a fixture on soundtracks, television programs, and late-night talk shows, released its seventh full-length album, Transference, on January 18, 2010. It debuted at number four on the Billboard 200. The band then took an extended hiatus of nearly four years, before resurfacing in 2014 with the announcement of another new album, Spoon's eighth. Recorded for the first time with an outside producer — in the shape of Dave Fridmann — the album was hailed by the band as its "loudest and gnarliest" to date. Entitled They Want My Soul, it was slated for release in August 2014 through Loma Vista Recordings in the U.S. and Anti in Europe.

This album contains no booklet.