Spoon - Hot Thoughts
(Matador)

In life on earth, there’s not much you can rely on. The one thing we can depend on is Spoon making great records. Their latest, Hot Thoughts, marks their return to their original label, Matador, and the first to be entirely produced by Dave Fridmann.
Fridmann’s essence and sleight of hand are firmly in place on Hot Thoughts but Britt Daniel and Jim Eno really drive the bus. If Spoon have ratcheted up their melodic or pop sensibilities, they’ve countered that with sonic complexities. “Do I Have To Talk You Into It” and “First Caress” give the record a nice pace with the former hitting Eno’s rhythms hard alongside fizzled keys before the latter nicely utilizes an underbelly of bouncing atmospherics that shotgun with Daniel’s signature rasp. Spoon do step outside their comfort zone too, particularly on the ghostly dirge “I Ain’t the One” and the shimmering pop of opener “Hot Thoughts.”
Overall though, Hot Thoughts is a Spoon record through and through; marked by hook-filled, intricate songs that feel deceptively simple and minimalistic but impossible to replicate and impossible to mistake for any other band. And that, you can rely on. (Dom)
Check out a track here.