THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

DJ Sub Par Says:
For many fans, will Arcade Fire ever make an album better than "Funeral"? Probably not. The alchemy of new but approachable sound, emotional but not sentimental is rare. So lets move on. "The Suburbs" is thematically and aesthetically as you'd expect it - filled with mid-tempo strummers about growing up and raising families. My favorite tracks get lost in the mix - "Rococo," where Win Butler seems to be joshing us, and the clap-along "City with no Children." But perhaps these were just the first to perk my ears with their hooky choruses. People may say this album is a little overlong and same-y, but on an album where there are two songs called "Sprawl" I suppose ambling might be the intention.

DJ Responsible Says:
I got a little nervous thirty seconds into The Suburbs. I was listening to a song called "The Suburbs," looking over song titles like "Wasted Hours," "Suburban War" and "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)," and thinking that this acoustic guitar sounds a little too polished. I mean, do we really need another meddling reflection on middle class ennui?

The Suburbs, despite its thematic familiarity, is so expertly crafted and finely written that it pushes this band's already fascinating musical arc. There's a reason Arcade Fire are the perpetual punching bag for indie-haters (well, two): they're popular, but more importantly, they make epic, envy-inducing albums that leave outsiders looking in. For example, The Suburbs manages to mesh the Breakfast Club sentiment of "Suburban War" ("And now the music divides us into tribes/You grew your hair so I grew mine") with the pummeling faux-angst of "Ready to Start" and the glimmering "Sprawl II" (note to Arcade Fire: release an entire EP of this new sound, please!). If you're too cool for The Suburbs, I can see why you might be envious.

Essential Tracks:

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): Janelle Monae - Archandroid

DJ Responsible Says: 

Seriously, Bad Boy Records? Puff Daddy found this chick? I guess the man has an eye for talent, which he manages to separate a decade or two apart (Notorious B.I.G., Janelle Monae). 

I love the idea of this album: the most memorable and awesome cover art in years meets the madness of the songs themselves--orchestral interludes, jazzy ballads, psychedelia, hip hop, Of Montreal, cut and dry Rhythm & Blues. This album is America's melting pot in the year 2200.


I found new favorites on every listen, transitioning from obvious favorites like "Cold War" to the down-tempo tractor beam of "Sir Greendown" and Monae channeling her inner Willy Wonka/Pigeon John on "Wondaland." For any band or artist releasing a debut album this year, good luck toppling this epic.


DJ Sub Par says:
"Epic" is right. this album flips though genres like it is shuffling cards. What makes it remarkable is how the album doesn't sacrifice flow while indulging a restless creativity. Songs unfold seamlessly from the last, making each progression feel natural rather than audio whiplash.


This is the second album this year that I can confidently say to anyone I know, "go listen to this from tip to tail." The first was Big Boi's efforts that came out only weeks ago. That half-of-Outkast actually produced this album and contributes a few verses on the single Tightrope. Someone is having a good year...

Essential Tracks:

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): Big Boi - Sir Luscious Left Foot

DJ Responsible Says:

Let's just get this out of the way: "Shine Blockas" is an amazing song (Pitchfork nailed that one on their 'best of' last year). It stands out like the last M&M in a bowl full of trail mix.

But there's a lot of other good stuff on Sir Luscious. And there's a lot of questionable stuff. It's just one of those dense, throw enough ingredients into the soup kind of albums.

For whatever reason, rap albums get a free pass in this regard. If any indie band outside Yo La Tengo released an album with unnecessary tracks like "You Ain't No DJ" or obnoxious interludes like the David Blaine segment, they'd be taken down a peg. But not Big Boi. He manages to remain on the pedestal, largely because 85% of his work is somewhere between good and stellar.

Sir Luscious is only a great hip hop album in relation to the rest of the drivel out there. And it could use a final edit. But why can't more rap music be this adventurous and fun?

DJ Sub Par Says:

Lets keep this simple. Go listen to this album. It might be the best album you hear this year. It is sonically daring. Here is a classical guitar. Here is KRS-ONE reference. Is that Opera? In addition to Shine Blockas listen to "Shutterbug," 'Tangerine," and "Daddy Fat Sax" (Be warned that Big Boi is an enthusiastic fan of sex.) Also don't miss the tracks exiled from the album by legal troubles, the Andre 3000 assisted "Lookin' for Ya" and "Royal Flush."

Essential Tracks:

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

DJ Responsible Says:

American Slang answers the eternal question: what if a slightly-more-eloquent Sam's Town-era Brandon Flowers made an album with the drummer from The Hold Steady and the lead guitarist from My Morning Jacket?


Sound exciting? Not really. It's more like a mere two notches above a waste of time.

The Hold Steady drumming: check out the uninspired 'thump-thump-thump' ad nauseum on the titular opening track. The My Morning Jacket guitaring: very talented, but often wanky and disconnected, like when Michael J. Fox solos to an unimpressed crowd in Back to the Future. The Brandon Flowers-esque vocals: throaty and serious and, my God, does he know how to rough up some ballad backing vocals.


Sometimes, when it all meshes together, American Slang can be quite palatable. "Orphans" and "Boxer" offer a spirited, concise one-two punch. But don't expect this album to find its way into my heart anytime soon.


DJ Sub Par Says:

I'm often a fan of backwards looking rock bands. (See Visqueen and Free Energy.) And Gaslight Anthem can turn out uptempo straight ahead rock. Their best weapon, as Kevin mentioned, are rock god vocal chords stolen from Bruce Springsteen. The band falters when they continue to rehash "Born to Run." They open the album with the profoundly mediocre title track, which casts a shadow over the tracks that makes everything sound the same. The second track "Stay Lucky" may be better, but still feels like a band coasting. It isn't until they slow down with "Bring it On," does it feel like the band is making music and not just playing songs. They follow it up the finger-snaps of "The Diamond Church Street Choir." Let's hope they continue to evolve their sound, maybe even making their own Nebraska.

Essential Tracks:

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): Blitzen Trapper - Destroyer of the Void

 DJ Sub Par Says:

Since 2007 album, Wild Mountain Nation, Blitzen Trapper have incurred comparisons. This album is so overstuffed with ideas that that critics tried to explain it by calling it "Grateful Dead meets Pavement", for their sound that veered from loose Americana to crunchy angular guitars. On their more focused follow up, Furr, critics tossed around the Band and 60's era Dylan. On Destroyer of the Void, they come out of the gate with the title track a proggy number, that I'm sure will invite comparisons to a prog-band-I-don't-know very well (maybe ELO?). After the title track and Laughing Lover, proving they are willing to try something new, they settle back into the folk of Furr. Who wouldn't welcome the delightful storytelling of "The Man Who Would Speak True" and "Heaven and Earth"? However, this album feels like a transition between the sound of "Furr" and whatever will come next.

DJ Responsible Says:

I initially thought that Destroyer of the Void was too prog--and the musical comparison I might offer would've been Rush. But on repeat listens, Destroyer doesn't stray too far from Blitzen Trapper's first two albums, instead further revealing the band's strengths and weaknesses. Blitzen Trapper, much like fellow Pacific Northwesterners Fleet Foxes, can knock a ballad out of the park. "The Tree" is gorgeous, both simple and understated, and beautifully sung over a minimal acoustic arrangement. Their 'rockers' are more of a mixed bag: "Destroyer of the Void" ultimately succeeds, but a song like "Evening Star" falls into meddling Fleetwood Mac territory (for however that makes you feel). I still don't think Blitzen Trapper have put together an amazing album-in-full, but they continue to release promising collections with a sprinkling of memorable tracks.

Essential Tracks:

"The Tree (ft. Alela Diane)"

"Heaven and Earth"

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

DJ Responsible Says:

This is Happening is a whirlwind. Every track is restless (some just fidgety, others epileptic). Emotions and insecurities are strewn about. The dance floor is spinning on a miraculous axis. It's a lifetime, albeit a drunken New York lifetime, crammed into a little over an hour.

The coolness isn't the draw, it's the tunes: there's always a new favorite, but you can't go wrong with the splendidly over-the-top synth-and-squeal of opener "Dance Yrself Clean" or the Bowie-esque "All I Want" (or the extended chug of "You Wanted a Hit", or the outer monologue musings of "Pow Pow"--"We have a black president and you do not, so shut up"--goddamn there's a lot to love here).

Best of all might be "Home," which is all shimmery and warm and full of cowbell. The sentiment is all the more pertinent, given James Murphy's desire to quit this whole album, touring thing. You can't blame a man for growing up, at least when he captures it this magnificently.

DJ Sub Par Says:

LCD broke into the conscious of the indie rock scene with the exuberance and humor of "Daft Punk is playing at my house." Since then he has reused his tricks of danceable beats, synthesized squelches, and jokey talking lyrics to similar effect with the previous single like "North American Scum" and now "Drunk Girls." James Murphy makes the most of these elements and seems to be striving to get past his own cool. The half humor of "Drunk Girls" seems to be a way for him to squeeze in a chorus that claims "I believe in waking up together."

Essential Tracks:

"Dance Yrslf Clean"

"All I Want"



"You Wanted a Hit"



"Home"

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): The National - High Violet

DJ Sub Par Says:

To say an album needs to be listened to over and over to "get it" tends to be an excuse for mediocrity. Often the best music is immediate and gripping. We don't need to ask ourselves, "Do we like this music?" We either we do or don't. Sometimes, however, bands that don't give us immediate thrill still have something of value.
The National consistent create moody guitar driven indie rock and High Velvet is no exception. Occasionally they achieve the emotional power of Arcade Fire or Frightened Rabbit, though pounding drums and jagged guitars, but for the most part they could fall inline with a hundred other indie rock bands. A few extra spins of the National and one of the best aspects of the band emerge: the lyrics. On their last album, Boxer, I had become disinterested until I heard the lyrics of "Green Gloves", where the narrator breaks into his friends house while he's not there and questions how much we really know people. On High Velvet singer Matt Berninger uses images of floods and bee swarms to craft tales of spiritual emptiness and becoming a father.

DJ Responsible Says:
The lyrics are actually the first thing that I noticed about The National; Alligator fit a perfect balance between  Sam Shepard's poetical clarity and Isaac Brock's nervous detachment. Curious psychoanalytical lines like "I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain/It went the dull and wicked ordinary way" swirled alongside anthemic, Americana-capturing classics like "I'm the new blue blood, I'm the great white hope...I won't fuck us over, I'm Mr. November."

High Violet is no Alligator, but I suppose that's not really the point. High Violet is a gentler affair.

The National have obviously grown comfortable in their own skin--too comfortable, I would argue, since much of the album's first half drifts along about as memorably as an afternoon lost. But anything The National releases is still special, and anything Berninger sings is still essential: the album feels destined to be part of a larger narrative we'll one day be proud to have shared at the source. As Berninger might suggest, everything's just a series of moments.

Essential Tracks

"Bloodbuzz Ohio"



Runaway

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): Caribou - Swim

DJ Sub Par Says:
One man electronic wrecking crew, Dan Snaith, must have made a pact with the Devil never to make the same album twice. He has torn through flavored his albums with over-loaded psychedelia (Up in Flames), Beat heavy Kraut Rock (Milk of Human Kindness) beach-boy tinged pop (Andorra). Here he returns with a album that sounds if it was actually recorded under the sea with bleached out cassette tapes. He takes the strange summery sounds of a wave of pitchfork approved indie bands (Memory Tapes, Neon Indian, Real Estate) and out does them all with the track, "Sun." My only suggestions is give these tracks a few spins - what might first appear as calculated beats eventually shows itself do be as comfortable as worn-out walkman on a summer day.

DJ Responsible Says:
"Odessa" is amazing. Dance floor ghosts, a mesmerizing bass beat, Prince-lite guitar twangs, salt shakers, hand claps, Chromeo drum rolls, church bells, synth archipelagos, and thoughtful lines like "Turn around the life she let him siphon away": this is one impeccable opener. And, indeed, an impossible bar for the rest of the (impressive) album to match.

"Sun" is quite bliss as well. As is "Lalibela" (a.k.a. maple syrup electronica).

Swim (I always want to call it simply "Odessa") succeeds in its density, texture, and cohesive experimentation. There's not a dud in the bunch. But it lacks in two regards: 1) occasionally, Caribou drift too far into straightforward electronic music (as on the Pantha-du-Prince-but-not-as-good "Bowls"); 2) more broadly, sometimes I just miss the real, double drum set sound of the eternal "Melody Day" (and the rest of Andorra, really). Maybe next album.

This one'll do for now.

Essential Tracks

"Odessa"

 

 

"Sun"

 

"Lalibela"

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): New Pornographers - Together

DJ Sub Par Says:

For those of you who don't know the New Pornographers, please for the love of music give them a listen. In an alternate universe this is the pop music that plays on the radio and gets covered on American Idol. This Canadian super group crafts three and half minute songs that are hooky and fun with cryptic lyrics that bare repeated listens.

For those who know this band: You may have been thrown off by the last album by A.C. Newman and the gang - "Challengers." The prevailing opinion was that they had abandoned the energy-cranked-to-ten approach for a mellower (read: boring) sound. I couldn't disagree more. "Challengers" was a natural progression from the Hey-la-las of stellar song "The Bleeding Heart Show." While the last album may have slowed things down it allowed them to bring in a complexity of sounds and find a strange highlight from weirdo contributor with "Myriad Harbor." So some critics may be calling this a come back of sorts, the bad-ass cello hits that start this album, the whistling bridge on "Crash Years" and fuller sound are a natural continuation.

DJ Responsible Says: 

Normally my least favorite contributor, Dan Bejar, is on fire here. I used to think he was sprinkled in for the sake of indie cred--Electric Version's wordy "Testament to You in Verse" just couldn't keep up with A.C. Newman's splendour-pop like "It's Only Divine Right." No more. Maybe I've matured, or maybe last year's whimsically epic Destroyer single "Bay of Pigs" was simply a turning point, but try not to love "Silver Jenny Dollar."

Together's best song, however, has been wrapping around my head for almost a week now: "Valkyrie in the Rollerdisco." Holy lovely banjo, I [heart] this duet. "You're a gold mine" New Pornographers. Keep making songs this bliss and albums this cohesive, and you're in for one hell of a discography.

Essential Tracks:

"Crash Years"

"Silver Jenny Dollar"



"Valkyrie in the Rollerdisco"

IN THE MIX: DJ Sub Par Loves Rap '09

Mos Def - Priority
Brother Ali - Tightrope
Blakroc - Done Did It (ft. Nicole Wray & NOE) (Edit)
BK-One - Philly Boy (ft. Black Thought)
P.O.S. - Goodbye
Big Boi - Shine Blockas (ft. Gucci Mane)
Mos Def - History (ft. Talib Kweli)
DOOM - Gazillion Ear
BK-One - Blood Drive (ft. Slug)
Brother Ali - House Keys
P.O.S. - Optimist (We Are Not For Them)
DJ Quik & Kurupt - 9x's Outta 10
Raekwon - Ason Jones
Blakroc - Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo) (ft. Jim Jones & Mos Def)
KiD CuDi - Alive (ft. Ratatat)
Tanya Morgan - Morgan Blu (ft. Blu)
K'naan - Somalia
Wale - 90210
Sol.illaquists of Sound - Bulletproof
Brother Ali - Begin Here

LISTS: DJ Sub Par's Top 6 Tracks January-April 2010

1

Song: Swim

Artist: Surfer Blood

Album: Astro Coast

Sounds Like: Muddy Anthemic Indie

Listen because...summer is upon us.

Listen Here

2

Song: Generator 1st Floor

Artist: Freelance Whales

Album: Weathervanes

Sounds Like: Poor-man's Postal Service

Listen because...you are secretly a little twee.

Listen Here

3

Song: Airplanes

Artist: Local Natives

Album: Gorilla Manor

Sounds Like: Grizzly Bear(the band not the animal)...like, a lot.

Listen because... it's been a few months and you miss Grizzly Bear's densely crafted songs.

Listen Here

4

Song: I Can't Swim

Artist: Miles Kurosky (of Beulah)

Album: The Desert of Shallow Effects

Sounds Like: Beulah, Apples in Stereo, Etc.

Listen because...you are an Elephant 6 fan from way back.

Listen Here

5

Song: Boy Lilikoi

Artist: Jonsi Birgisson (of Sigur Ros)

Album: Go

Sounds Like: Coherent Sigur Ros
Listen because...you love your strange pop music to be immediate yet fully orchastrated.

Listen Here

6

Song: You Must Be out of your Mind

Artist: Magnetic Fields

Album: Realism

Sounds Like: Cynical Kids Music

Listen because...you can't get enough a deep voice with, I'm guessing, banjo and xylophone.

Listen Here

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): Ted Leo - The Brutalist Bricks

Band: Ted Leo
Album: The Brutalist Bricks
Sounds Like: Clash, The Thermals, Okkervil River
Sub-Sub Genre: Personal Political Indie Punk
Essential Tracks: Bottled in Cork, Even Heroes have to Die, The Mighty Sparrow


DJ Sub Par Says:

Ted Leo is a steady hand. Every couple years he releases an album that comes from a punk rock impulse (read:the clash) that is unafraid to incorporate other influences, including reggee, dub, folk, celtic. While not every detour is successful, it is delivered with enough energy until Ted finds his feet again. He certainly finds his footing a few times on this album. He comes out of the gate with The Mighty Sparrow and the lyrics "When the cafe doors exploded I reacted to/reacted to yoooou." Try starting your morning of with that a see if you don't have a better day.

DJ Responsible Says:
Ted & the gang are at their best when they're making songs about places. "Bottled in Cork," the high point of The Brutalist Bricks's many peaks, is the sound of aging realists maintaining a bright-eyed wonder towards their globe-trotting ways. After name-dropping the United Nations and maybe a dozen (mostly European) cities, the narrative eventually drifts into something more narrow and immediate: "I tell the bartender/I think I'm falling love" repeated optimistically over the sound of dizzy, clinking glasses.

Even when Ted Leo are sounding raw for the sake of being raw ("The Stick"), or weird for the sake of weirdness ("Mourning in America"), they are simply avoiding the semi-downfall uniform-catchiness of 2004's Shake the Sheets. The Brutalist Bricks is just another example of Ted Leo giving 'prolific' a good name.

Bottled In Cork - Ted Leo & Th...

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks

Band: Frightened Rabbit
Album: The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Sounds Like: A dirty Scottish Coldplay
Essential Tracks: Swim Until You Can't See Land, Living in Colour

DJ Responsible Says:
Admittedly, The Winter of Mixed Drinks is not as brash as The Midnight Organ Fight. It doesn't reach out and grab you by the throat, it simply gnaws at your ankle.

In other words, this one's a grower.

On first listen, I didn't catch the melancholy de-materialism of "Things" ("I don't need these things/I don't need them, oh"), and the rawness of "The Wrestle" ("they tore me limb from limb/there is bone, there is gristle"), recognizing only the immediacy of softie "Swim Until You Can't See" and the epic, should-be-album-closer "Living in Colour." Thankfully, these beautiful hidden moments become more tangible with every listen.

DJ Sub Par Says:
I echo Kevin's major point, this album requires a little bit of time.

In the meantime take a listen to the single (posted below). Frighted Rabbit are at their best when charmingly wishing for destruction. On the first single of their last album, Modern Leper, songwriter Scott Hutchinson makes his emotional crippling a physical one. Yet, on Swim Until You Can't See Land,  what immediately struck me as suicidal transformed into something else. The melody bobs along the surface. This act is an act of defiance. It is an act of living. He sings "Call this a drowning of the past"

Swim Until You Can't See Land ...

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): VIsqueen - Message to Garcia

Band: Visqueen
Album: Message to Garcia
Sounds Like: Neko Case, Joan Jett
Sub Sub Genre: Female-Fronted Rocknroll
Essential Tracks: Hand me Down, Fight for Love, Beautiful Amneisia, So Long

DJ Sub Par Says:

You won't find a Visqueen review on pitchfork yet. But watch for them to blow up at SXSW this year. Who are they? The Neko Case/Joan Jett comparison is apt. Soaring vocals of Neko and the guitar crunch of Joan. Visqueen stomps through 11 tracks in under 40 minutes and there is hardly a misfire (I find some of the lyrics on "Summer Snow" a little grating, but let's not dwell.) Put on the album, crank it up.

DJ Responsible Says:
Borrowing a compliment I've heard bestowed upon The Hold Steady, Visqueen might be the best bar band in the world (or at least in the top 5%). I can imagine them rocking through sweaty hits like "Hand Me Down" and "Beautiful Amnesia" before turning the lights down low for the lighter-raising sentiment of album centerpiece "So Long." But I'm curious to know how their sound will play out at the sunny fields of SXSW. For Visqueen's sound is decidedly indoor: all rasp, fuzz and toe tapping heartbreak

So Long - Visqueen

THE BREAKDOWN (FT. DJ SUB PAR): Vampire Weekend - Contra

Band: Vampire Weekend

Album: Contra

Sounds Like: Ra Ra Riot, Paul Simon's Graceland, The Very Best

Sub-Sub Genre: Indie Prep-rock

Essential Tracks: Cousins, Giving Up the Gun

DJ Responsible Says: Even with the substantial critical hype and the (unsurprising) massive populist backlash--or at least bickering--my first reaction to Contra tended not to be love nor hate, but an unqualified 'wtf?'. Was this really what they had spent all their time and money doing? Was this really the album, the Ivy League hipster so-uncool-it's-cool-again album that went number one in the country? Who sits down and writes "In December drinking horchata/I'd look psychotic in a balaclava" and feels that it's somehow a reasonable way to start an album (whether ironic or not)?

For however unenjoyable Contra can be at times ("Horchata," the auto-tuned "California English"), you can't label Vampire Weekend sell outs. In fact, there's an odd dichotomy to this release: their sudden and (for me) inexplicable popularity butt up against the downright incomprehensible oddity that is the actual listening experience. Did people know what they were getting into? Or were they just drawn in by the beautiful bemused blond?

There is at least half an album to love here: "Giving Up the Gun" is fairly spectacular, perhaps simply for its relative normalcy and earnestness. "White Sky" is obnoxiously buoyant and contagious, but somehow doesn't go too far. And "Taxi Cab" is a stunning, downbeat mid-album showcase for their impressive musical craft. A little taste of realness goes a long way, especially when it's hard to find.

DJ Sub Par Says: I consume music the way Michael Phelps takes in calories. I hardly pause to breathe. A month belated review of one of the most hyped bands in the last few gives me time for something rare, a chance to savor. Above all, VW have a distinct sound, joyous and upbeat. Perhaps it is derivative, schticky and might not hold up over time. But for now I'd wager that anyone can cull ten tracks from their last two albums and have themselves a nice driving CD. What more do you really want from a band?

THE BREAKDOWN (W/ DJ SUB PAR): Spoon - Transference

Band: Spoon

Album: Transference

Sounds Like: Ted Leo, Cold War Kids, White Rabbits, The Walkmen

Sub Sub Genre: Minimalist Rock

Essential Tracks: Got Nuffin, Goodnight Laura, Who Makes Your Money?

DJ Sub Par: Britt Daniels and Co are unflappable. Apparently they don't know how to make a bad album. Sure, their first single, "The Mystery Zone" might have them going back to the Spoon book of tricks with a minimalist grove, but elsewhere they have eschewed the studio gloss of their previous outing (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga) for disoriented tracks, where the vocals might cut out sudden. The Ballad "Goodnight Laura" feels like a tape recorder has caught Britt taping out a song on the piano for the first time - a rough beauty.

DJ Responsible: As DJ Sub Par alluded, the production is a little all over the place. It's hard to imagine that the shimmering "The Mystery Zone" and the shiny "Is Love Forever?"--a.k.a. Spoon performing atop American Gladiators' Assault, can you hear the tennis ball gun?-- are only a stones throw removed from the grungy (and mediocre) "Trouble Comes Running." However, as trustworthy as the well-worn silver spoon in your morning granola, it all just sort of coheres.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Who Makes Your Money?," the best thing they've done since Gimme Fiction (so, not that long I guess). It's got the spine of a Spoon song, but all twisted and spaced-out and warped. If the rest of the album would've felt a little more like this, the memories may have reverberated even deeper.

Got Nuffin - Spoon

Who Makes Your Money - Spoon