Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

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Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 10   Total Length: 36:26

eMusic Review 0

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Andy Battaglia

eMusic Contributor

Andy Battaglia writes about music and culture of various other kinds from a home base in New York. His work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Wire, t...more »

04.22.11
David Lynch, Phil Spector, Billy Joel walk into a bar...
Label: Anti Records / Epitaph

To call Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga one of the year's two or three best rock albums is to overstate how much it sounds like a rock album. There's no mistaking its imperturbable swagger and seething refrains for anything else — Spoon still knows how to write a song that could fit into each of rock's past five decades without tipping toward any one in particular. But even songs on Ga Ga that traffic in guitars don't sound like they were written with guitars in mind. Spoon sounds more interested now in drums and empty space, both of which sparkle and boom in ways that make singer Britt Daniel sound positively electrified to be in their presence.

The sparse and experimental lean of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga places it closer to the group's 2002 breakthrough Kill the Moonlight than its bash-minded follow-up Gimme Fiction. “Don't Make Me a Target” opens on a note of resignation and rage, with portentous guitar and piano that build toward a sort of atonal rockabilly jam about two minutes in. From there, though, the album takes on an air of mystery with “The Ghost of You Lingers,” a gorgeous and terrifying ballad in which Daniel's… read more »

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Raconteurs go POP

HairBear

This is a good no nonsense fun album. Played it several times and it just keeps getting better. ENJOY

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What a find

japiooh

This starts where the Clash once stopped. Great, really great imo.

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Probably their best album

mauriziomelino

I got astonished when I bought Gimme Fiction in 2005, after a positive remark by allmusic guide, Then I explored their whole catalogue, discovering pure gems like Gimme Fiction (2001). But I have rated this album as their best: it is said by a fan of them. Try first "Cherry Bomb" or "Rhythm and Soul" to get persuaded. Ranking among the five of six greatest bands playing around in the 00’s.

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A jangly modern classic

TheScar

Just a stunner from beginning to end. My first Spoon CD, and what a find! One of my three fave CDs from 2007. Can't recommend it more highly.

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The best spoon album yet...

Crzy8sal

While I always liked Spoon, I find this album to be a lot more fun and catchy than their older albums, it just has an energy that's a bit different and that's really nice. Have to say it's my favorite Spoon album so far, and the best I've heard in a while!

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Another exceptional album for 2007

ChunkyCheeks

I always look forward to a new spoon album and with this – their 6th – Britt daniel and co appear to be back on form. Tune wise, I'd say its their most accessible since classic "Girls Can Tell" and in places, notably more funky than anything else they've released. There's even shades of "Me and the Bean" during the chorus of "finer feelings". Its got everything you want from a spoon record. Try out "cherry bomb", "don't you evah" and "finer feelings" for an overall flavour.

eMusic Features

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eMusic Yearbook: 2005

By Chuck Eddy, eMusic Contributor

Indie-rock in the '00s was hardly the same animal as indie-rock two decades before, and much of the blame should probably go to Nirvana. In the '80s, labels like SST and Touch & Go were built on testosterone. But when grunge went multiplatinum in the '90s, rock bands brandishing palpable physicality suddenly qualified as mainstream again, and the bigger indies started adopting a more effete and introverted aesthetic. So if you skim down a list… more »

They Say All Music Guide

“Attention to detail” doesn’t necessarily sound like the secret ingredient to brilliant rock & roll, but in Spoon’s case, it comes second only to inspiration. Britt Daniel, Jim Eno, and company keep finding ways to challenge themselves and their listeners by working within the same basic, streamlined sonic framework they crafted on Girls Can Tell, adding a few new twists here and there with each album. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga just might be the most winning update on this approach since Girls Can Tell itself: each song is as carefully and creatively pruned as a bonsai tree, with nothing fussy or superfluous to mar the clean lines of the songwriting or arrangements. This is especially impressive considering that on this album, Spoon works with their widest array of sounds yet. Everything from kotos to chamberlains to horns straight out of Motown are fair game on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, but they’re used so deftly and judiciously that they never feel like window dressing. As on Gimme Fiction, the band maps out Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’s territory within the first three tracks. “Don’t Make Me a Target” is a sleek yet gritty prologue designed to draw listeners in like Fiction’s “The Beast and Dragon, Adored,” and its seductive pull only heightens the impact of “The Ghost of You Lingers.” All pounding pianos and fleeting, fragmented verses, the song initially feels like it’s all buildup and no release, but this insistent yet incomplete feeling is what makes it haunting and brilliant: its circling thoughts and echoes upon echoes feel like you’re chasing the song — or its subject — to no avail. Even if “The Ghost of You Lingers” almost perversely avoids hooks, “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb”‘s homage to blue-eyed soul delivers them in abundance. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’s songs are svelte, especially compared to Gimme Fiction, yet they’re far from starved. Interesting details decorate the margins of these songs, whether it’s the studio chatter that revs up “Don’t You Evah” or the fascinatingly fragmented lyrics of “Eddie’s Ragga” (“there ain’t no getting over Joanie Hale-Maier”). Jon Brion pops up bass, chamberlain, and production duties on “The Underdog,” one of Spoon’s bounciest, brassiest nods to classic pop in a long time, and a perfect contrast to the exotic, spooky minimalism of “My Little Japanese Cigarette Case”‘s shivery kotos and Spanish guitars. Concise and lively (“Black Like Me” is as close as the album gets to a ballad), Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is a remarkable blend of focus and creativity; even if Spoon’s modus operandi seems overly regimented on paper, the results are just as elegant as they are fun. – Heather Phares

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Activity

  • 05.22.12 Britt Daniel's got a new band called @divinefits and an album is due on Merge this year. Meanwhile Spoon plays Madrid on June 23.
  • 04.19.12 Just announced a show in Madrid: http://t.co/OoQ4lK8H
  • 04.14.12 http://t.co/nb4on0qd
  • 04.14.12 http://t.co/AcxwG1z2
  • 04.13.12 http://t.co/cfqLEIRi
  • 04.12.12 Tix for you and your friends if you're game. DM if interested.
  • 04.12.12 We need someone from Austin to deliver some equipment to us in Houston for tomorrow night's show.
  • 04.03.12 Did you know that you can download Spoon's Transference from Amazon for $5 right this moment? http://t.co/hy7JehQH
  • 03.13.12 Download Eric's first solo record for free this week at http://t.co/H8hLdI9G. See @SXSW: Wed 1am Stephen F's, and Thurs 7pm Hyatt Downtown.
  • 03.07.12 Just announced: 3 Texas Spoon shows in April -- Austin, Dallas, and Houston. Pre-sale starts tomorrow at 10am CST. http://t.co/L7shJu5Q
  • 12.09.11 We gotta new Ryan Berkley poster up in the store. http://t.co/2N5SCcCH
  • 12.07.11 Watch @Spoontheband's set from @FunFunFunFest, now playing @Noisey_US http://t.co/ZEVVdGX1