[3.5/5]
It's easy to forget how exciting Spoon's 2001 masterpiece Girls Can Tell was at the time; the subsequent regularity of songwriter Britt Daniel's originality has spoiled us. But listen afresh to Spoon now hitting all their marks: The poignancy of such instrumental minimalism, the emotional weight of Daniel's odd phrasings, the seeming nonchalance. Only the best can make it seem this easy. Opening track "Don't Make Me A Target" is a case in point. Its incremental tension comes in its repetitiveness; the looping piano punches and the echoing refrain of the title. "The Ghost Of You Lingers" continues apace with Daniel's signature percussive keyboards and indie piano-man rhyme spitting, but the reverb-heavy vocal places him at an uncomfortable remove-new and familiar at once. Evidence enough that Spoon are capable of evoking nostalgia in both the past and future tense. (MERGE)
Luke O'Neil
 Official Website: http://www.mergerecords.com)
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