The Freedom Club

All rock critics seem to always be very eager to claim “album of the year” and throw out the word “masterpiece” like it’s going outta style. Though I refuse to use the word masterpiece for anything except my own work, Spoon’s “Gimme Fiction” is absolutely a flawless rock album and is, at least so far, the most consistent and pleasing album of the year. Britt Daniel writes songs that are filled with detail and somehow attains a balance between massive sound and scope contained in 11 tight songs (more including some fabulous bonus tracks like the haunting "Carryout Kids"). Not to cross boundaries into sacrilegious territory, but I’d go as far as to it has the same feel of inspired but concise conceptual pop as The Beatles “Revolver”. Songs like “My Mathematical Mind” and “I Summon You” set the somewhat dark tone of the album, “Was It You” provides interesting variety while “I Turn My Camera On” and “Sister Jack” keep the album flowing so perfectly and, in a perfect world, would be two of the biggest singles of the year. Thankfully, “Gimme Fiction” is as interesting and beautiful as it’s album cover, a shopping impulse that rarely ever pays off.

*Author's Note: This Review and the Oneida review were done sometime last year when these albums had just come out. They were also done for a "magazine" that requires a certain limited amount of words so you'll see far less detail and lengthly self indulgent writing in these than in the 2 above them that I did on my own for blogcritics.org. I guess I could go back and add to them, but what's the point?

Labels: Gimme Fiction, Spoon