SPOON'S rather excellent "Gimme Fiction" was this reviewer's first opportunity to have a lengthy trawl through mainman Britt Daniel's enigmatic psyche. It was an intriguing place to wind up, too, with his slightly skewhiff cerebrality informing the band's edgy, exhilarating indie guitar sounds without obviously aping anyone too much, least of all their acid-fried Texan forbears such as And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and the notorious Butthole Surfers.
One of the most immediate tracks from "Gimme Fiction", "Sister Jack" works well as a stand-alone single, too. It's beaty, memorable gear with a cranked-up exhilaration factor to the fore and it's happy to show off a few serrated edges as well as some Big Star-style power pop tendencies along the way. When done with this much panache, that's perfectly acceptable too.
The brace of fresh B-sides are worth the price of admission as well. "Monkey Feelings" marries brash, brutish lo-fi loops to spidery acoustic guitar riffing, with Daniel's lyrics making vivid, semaphore signals ("I was a practice mark/ listening to the weatherman") and the band weaving a groovy, edgy and slightly lopsided tapestry.
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The closing "It Took A Rumor To Make Me Wonder, Now I'm Afraid I'm Going Under", meanwhile, sports a title Morrissey would covet, but follows a far more experimental route with soundtrack-style tendencies, Jah Wobble-ish, frequency-bothering basslines and Daniel's weird, compressed vocals apparently drowning in a sea of paranoia. It's creepy and unlikely, but bears repeated scrutiny surprisingly well. It's a step down a path more otherworldly than anything Spoon approached with "Gimme Fiction", but to their credit they pull it off and leave the door open for further experimentation come next album time should they so desire.
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