polaroids of androids

I feel that the fact that it's difficult to review the new Spoon record Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is indicative of the record itself.

It's not that it's a bad record, then it would be easy. But songs such as Don't Make Me A Target and the swaggering Don't You Evah make it hard to hate.

But it's not that it's great either. The Ghost Of You Lingers does exactly that, although for much too long, and Pitchfork Media's proclaimed "'Float On' of 2007" The Underdog fusses about in a mixture of over dramatic guitars, horns and handclaps and in between it all forgets to figure out what it's supposed to be.

It seems Spoon found it's formula on the fantastic Gimme Fiction, but has tweaked it ever so slightly for the worse on this release. Gone are the punchy percussion driven numbers, replaced with even more repetitive piano loops (ok, we get it Spoon, you LOVE the piano).

While exceptions are evident on the album, nothing stands out enough to rescue it from mediocrity. Fantastically executed, envy worthy mediocrity that any other band would kill for, but mediocrity all the same. Spoon are capable of so much more.