Review of the Spoon album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Most bands are hard for me to stick with. Usually as time goes by, their original sound will morph into something that is ineptly modernized or completely foreign. Take Green Day. I bought my first Green Day album because there was a song on it about masturbation. I was 14. It seemed cool and brash and irreverant. You know what's not irreverant? Green Day's latest string of politically-alluded, humanitarian songs and their spin-off of the rock opera Tommy. Not that I don't respect what Green Day is doing or the messages they are transmitting. I just liked the old Green Day better. They were fun and familiar and that is all I ever expected of them. Of course, staying the same can mean disaster for bands too. Like Weezer, maybe. I was a huge fan of Weezer until they started coming out with album after album of songs that sounded too much like their old songs. "Island in the Sun" can never be "Holiday." "Hash Pipe," "Dope Nose," and "Beverly Hills" will never be "Buddy Holly." Come on, guys. Give it up. Your time has passed and now you are just getting annoying. See, I tend to get bored with bands who release album after album of stuff that all sounds the same. If your second album sounds the same as your first album, why should I buy the second one?

Anyway, the issue here is the new Spoon album. It still sounds like Spoon. It sounds a lot like their other albums. All of their other albums. There are the same catchy hooks, the same bouncing keyboard, the same vocal production and the same type of lyrical matter. This could have been a disaster. This could have been boring. This could have been redundant. But somehow, the entire album sounds completely fresh and new.

Maybe it is just Spoon. I mean, I would probably describe the band's overall sound as "fresh and new," so I guess it comes as no surprise that their latest album engages me just as much as Kill the Moonlight did when I heard it four years ago. I don't mean to sound trite, but Spoon is a pretty timeless band and thus Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is an apt addition to their repertoire.

The album starts off with the upbeat and catchy "Don't Make Me A Target" - standard Spoon fare. Banging keyboards, clanging guitars, and lax yet captivating vocals ease together to create an impeccably clean and polished opening. The second track, "The Ghost of You Lingers," is unsettling with ethereal backing vocals, a tense keyboard, and threatening sound effects. It reminds me of something from the 80s. Maybe Foreigner. There is a definite lonely eeriness in the song, punctuated by the urgency of the sometimes dissonant keyboard chords.

There is no weak song on the album. Each track serves as evidence that we can rely on Spoon to bring us something new and original that we already know we will like. Hopefully this is saying enough for me to skip out on reviewing every track individually without losing any benevolence toward the album as a whole. There is, however, a star track that stands out to me. "The Underdog," with its bold horns, jangling tambourine, hand claps, and charged vocals is probably too catchy, too exciting, and generally too good to be a radio single (unless it already is, in which case I have underestimated corporate stations). In any case, whenever I am able to see a live Spoon performance, this is the song I will be most desirous to hear.

Lastly, I must mention the final track, "Black Like Me." I have never given much creedence to Spoon's lyrics, but "Black Like Me" is actually mood-alteringly melancholy in its content (and may involve a reference to masturbating with a vaccuum: a surefire way to enamor me with a song).

Overall, the album is solid in preserving the notable Spoon sound without sacrificing progression or invention. The optimistic, pulsing tones carry over some darker sentiments to create an upbeat collection that is not devoid of worth or sincerity. Among the often vapid and inapt ablums currently being released, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga stands out for its sharpness and genunine appeal.