After four and a half years of silence since Transference, Spoon is back with their eighth studio album, They Want My Soul. Released in 2014, the album has garnered the band some of their best reviews and acclamations to date from critics and fans alike. Just as with Transference, They Want My Soul peaked at the number four position on the Billboard 200 list.
After finding commercial success and releasing five albums with indie label Merge Records, They Want My Soul is the band’s first LP released through the Brooklyn/Beverly Hills label Loma Vista Recordings, a division of Universal. A lot has happened in the last 5 years for co-founders Britt Daniel and Jim Emo. Not only do they have a new label joining the roster alongside Cut Copy, St. Vincent, Damian Marley, Marilyn Manson, and others, but they have also added a keyboardist into the mix with the addition of Alex Fischel.
Fans have been eagerly awaiting, and Spoon has delivered. They Want My Soul is an impressive creation from the 20-year-old band of Austin rockers complete with the gritty guitar reverb and distortion the band is known for, poignant vocals delivering the relatable struggle of love and loss, but now mixed with even dancier beats complemented by the addition of the dreamy synth-pop keyboardist section.
Being able to evolve in your career while managing to remain true to your own artistic evolution and expression is a feat that few bands are able to successfully execute. Whether you are attracted to the cynicism and satirical observations on love in the lyrics or the simplistic thrashing guitar chords that make you forget about your broken heart or lost loves all together, this album gives us all of this and more.
Britt Daniel took his time writing and recording this album, refusing to sacrifice quality just to piggyback on the successful model and recipe that has worked for the band throughout the 2000’s: album release > 18 months of touring > recording and releasing album > touring, etc. In fact, the album’s “Knock Knock Knock” discusses the regurgitation and recycling of Hollywood’s same old recipe, which leaves the art completely void of any significant meaning at all.
They Want My Soul begins with opening track, “The Rent I Pay.” The hard driving drum beats provided by Jim Eno as Daniel’s thrashing guitar and voice alike deliver the garage-punk that we’re accustomed to, but with a more refined and mature delivery than in past Spoon tracks. Daniel’s sings of losing sleep, dealing with the demands on himself from others, the desire for the peace that he feels he is owed, but chalks up all of these needs weighing on him very simply and astutely to being part of his daily responsibilities, the rent he pays.
The album progresses with better hooks and catchier beats. Again, this is a new twist on the consistent sounds of minimalist punk delivered in years past. “Inside Out,” the second track, has become an early favorite of mine. The new keyboard section is dominatingly evident as we are transferred to a dreamscape of looping drum and bass beats layered with harmonic vocals. From there, we listen to Daniel’s refusal to make time for the “holy rollers,” perhaps religion as a whole, instead serving as a satellite for the one he loves, elliptically orbiting this desired completion of himself, barely holding on if only through the gravitational pull of his affection for her. Time will continue to pass, and he will continue to circle her, just out of reach, unable to fully connect aside from this universal pull.
In “Rainy Taxi,” we are given the heavily distorted rockabilly twang sounds familiar from “The Rent I Pay” combined with the synth-pop style of “Inside Out,” only to be completed with Daniel’s lyrics painfully declaring the strength that he once obtained from his love has gone, along with all good news in his life. He admits his own vulnerability as he clearly and concisely warns that if he is abandoned, he will never sing another tune. The third verse contains a very subtle nod to David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” “Put on your red shoes, sing to me lover-girl,” followed with “When you do, my love, I forget the world. And if you say ‘run’, I may run with you. I’ve got nothing else. I’ve got nowhere else.”
They Want My Soul is a tremendous effort full of the rock simplicity Spoon fans are accustomed to, the edgy drum beats that make it impossible to not put on those red shoes to dance along, and the most susceptible and emotionally impassioned lyrics to date. Whether you’re looking for background ambience, a playlist to amp you up for the evening, or a soundtrack to your aching heart, this album provides.