by Spoon List Price:$15.00 Our Price:$13.00 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Product Details
Media: Audio CD
Release Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Label: Merge Records
Average Customer Review: 4.5 Based on 29 reviews.
Sales Rank: 105
Tracks
1.
Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine
2.
Was It You
3.
They Never Got You
4.
Sister Jack
5.
My Mathematical Mind
6.
Merchants Of Soul
7.
Infinite Pet
8.
I Turn My Camera On
9.
I Summon You
10.
Delicate Place
11.
Beast And Dragon, Adored
Editorial Review
Gimme Fiction is Spoon's loosest, most eclectic effort yet. While still sounding like themselves, the Austin-based band manages to evoke a number of other artists on their fifth full-length. (It's a neat trick.) On proto-glam opener "The Beast and Dragon, Adored," Britt Daniels channels the David Bowie of The Man Who Sold the World. Then there's slinky jam "I Turn My Camera On," where he conjures up Prince or Mick Jagger, circa "Miss You," by singing in a higher register. As indicated by the title, "Sister Jack" sounds like early Who (i.e. "Happy Jack"), while "They Never Got You" sounds like Plastic Ono Band-era John Lennon. Do all these different styles hang together? For the most part: yes. After the triumph of Kill the Moonlight, Spoon could have easily rested on their laurels and issued another album just like it, but Gimme Fiction proves they would rather evolve than stagnate. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Top Customer Reviews
Rating:
3 3 years for this?
To me, Gimme Fiction is a disappointment. I suddenly I realize that it's the same feeling I had when Flaming Lips followed Soft Bulletin with Yoshimi. SB was so grand. So many movements within songs. So much thought in crafting that sound. And Yoshimi didn't have a single (though I could be remembering it wrong) tempo change. The mix of live and synth drums was so uninventive compared to SB. And the lyrics came through like bad stoner rock, when on SB they were sublime.Kill the Moonlight vs. Gimme Fiction: Most things that made KTM so unique seem to be absent from GF. Where is the brevity? Where is the space? Is Sister Jack a boring classic rock song in disguise? Can they be more un-weird? Uninventive? It just sounds like a band in cruise control. And it took 3 years?
Rating:
4 Homage to the Forefathers
It appears that Spoon has jumped the fence over to mainstream success with this release. The band has borrowed liberally from the classic rock of the 70's and 80's (their formative years, I presume), from the ominous Bowie-esque glam-rock opener, "Beast and Dragon, Adored", to the falsetto Stones-funk of "I Turn My Camera On". The first half of this CD is especially impressive, laden with hooks, the catchiest being in "Sister Jack", an upbeat number that evokes so many "Jack" songs of yore (The Who's "Happy Jack"; the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash", even Spirit's "Uncle Jack"). Once we pass that song, memorable tunes are harder to come by, though they're consistently competent and entertaining. Their pop-tradition sensibilities remind me of Fountains of Wayne, albeit with a harder edge. And now and then Britt Daniels' guitar cuts loose on a "noisy" solo that reminds us they still consider themselves an alternative band. Overall, it's a worthy effort, as Spoon joins groups like Modest Mouse and the Shins in gaining a well-deserved wider audience.
Rating:
5 Got to believe they came for rock n' roll!
When I sampled this CD in a store the first thing I heard was a rather downbeat guitar riff taken over by a haunting piano before a brooding chord progression kicked in that resembled the theme to a man about to commit murder and thats all it took for the hairs to stand up on the back of my neck and for me to purchase this masterpiece. Following the critical-prized deceptively simple arrangements of Kill the Moonlight, Spoon have opted to develop their sound which now likens to the Beatles (The Beast and Dragon Adored) and the Stones (I Turn My Camera On) and of course an element that no one can find a refrence to. (Was it You?)Now this isn't the easiest pop-friendly music at first listen. The second half of the album never exactly revealed itself to me until my 4th or 5th listen, Bbut what a joy it is to discover a band that is still producing awesome music so far into their career (the 5th album). Buy this CD now, you will not regret it, I listen to a lot of music and this is already in my top 10 of the year so far and well on it's way to the top 5. Enjoy!
