★★★★
Spoon have made a career out of changing the questions right when listeners think they have all the answers.
In particular, the band’s 2000s output saw the songs that toyed the most with genre semantics become their best-known tracks – the piano pop of ‘The Way We Get By’, the disco/glam shuffle of ‘I Turn My Camera On’ and the mariachi-flavoured triumph that is ‘The Underdog’ naming but a few.
On Hot Thoughts, Britt Daniel and co. have assembled a fascinating curveball of psychedelia, R&B and even a pinch of free-form jazz for good measure. The title track somehow pulls off being both sizzling and ice-cold simultaneously, all churning keyboard drone and downward-spiral chord progressions. Elsewhere, Spoon take big leaps with wig-outs like ‘Pink Up’ and the two-part ‘WhisperI’lllistentohearit’, their sonic ambitions paying off in spades.
Even when the tracklist gives way to ‘vintage’ Spoon – the pulsing ‘I Ain’t The One’; the Stones-esque ‘Do I Have To Talk You Into It’ – it still has a sense of vitality and freshness to it.
A new Spoon album is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get, but you’re guaranteed something delicious.
Spoon’sHot Thoughts is out now throughMatador/Remote Control.
