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Sep 9, 2014On They Want My Soul, Spoon’s most wide-ranging and eclectic album of its career, this isn’t a band who are settling in to their collective stride, but searching for new places entirely.
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Aug 4, 2014They Want My Soul is the sort of mid-career album promising young bands should aspire to, and long-established acts will come to resent.
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Aug 12, 2014They Want My Soul is focused, tight and impeccably produced. The songwriting is crisp and tight, Daniel's ear for a catchy and upbeat riff have resurfaced.
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MagnetAug 6, 2014This is prime indie rock with all the frills excised, but all the feels intact. [No. 112, p.58]
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Aug 5, 2014There's nothing cheap or flimsy about Soul. Each song seems constructed from the finest notes, honed to their perfect shapes.
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Aug 4, 2014The quintet likes to pull melody out of dissonance and repetition. Now they've also found the soul.
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Aug 6, 2014They Want My Soul chases that sound far past anything Spoon have done to date in their careers. It’s a chase I hope never ends.
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Aug 4, 2014These songs rip and burst and go.
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Jul 30, 2014They just make fantastic, intricate albums that sound like they’re not even trying. Spoon are a band with nothing to prove. They Want My Soul proves everything.
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Aug 20, 2014Soul's got some new tricks, too, mainly a subtle but noticeable shift toward smoother, keyboard-heavy pop. Unfortunately, not every track leaves a mark. No matter: When a band like Spoon is offering any chunk of itself, you take whatever you can get.
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Aug 5, 2014The playing on They Want My Soul still possesses a marked degree of control, but it’s treated with additional textures made possible by Fridmann and Fischel.
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Aug 1, 2014It’s not as fun as 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga or 2005’s Gimme Fiction, but it’s just as punchy, while also sticking with the ambition that made Transference arguably so intriguing despite its muddled demeanor.
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Sep 10, 2014The tone is set: They Want My Soul gives pleasures immediate and unlocked, a freshly bitten peach dribbling sweet nectar down your chin.
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Q MagazineAug 28, 2014It's a brilliant record, without question their best to date. [Sep 2014, p.107]
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Aug 13, 2014They Want My Soul is more of a welcome return than a comeback, and too complex to be considered back-to-basics--especially when they reinvent the basics on each album.
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Aug 7, 2014While their eighth album doesn’t take any major left turns, it brims with life, ideas and energy.
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Aug 6, 2014They Want My Soul is both mournful and confessional, its best moments coming when the band members allow themselves to be vulnerable.
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Aug 6, 2014The album hones a clear message about how society is marred with malicious leeches and false prophets, but it’s just one side of many--most of all, this is Spoon mostly letting loose their perennial white funk, kinda square but almost always rhythmically enticing.
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Aug 5, 2014The brisk 38-minute, 10-song collection brims with sideways guitar pluck and twang, warbly keys, and earwormy tunes that demand immediate repeated listens.
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Aug 5, 2014Spoon's eighth album is an immediate grabber on par with the group's best work to date.
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Aug 5, 2014It’s rock refigured as a Damien Hirst spot painting--a series of isolated, colorful pops that, together, mesmerize.
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Aug 5, 2014Throughout They Want My Soul, the songs flow into and out of each other with a subtle movement that’s hypnotic and sounds deceptively simple.
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Aug 5, 2014Soul deftly blends caprice with the ensemble’s usual care. Anything featuring Daniel’s scrunched-up, uncommonly expressive yelp and high-strung guitar can’t help but be Spoon-y.
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Aug 4, 2014Altogether a belter of an album, then, as their reputation for consistency prevails once more.
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Aug 4, 2014Exciting things are still happening amidst routine and constancy, and sometimes submitting isn’t settling or getting saved; it’s letting yourself get moved against all odds. And that may be rock & roll’s only remaining saving grace, one that Spoon continues upholding and confronting with every album.
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Aug 1, 2014They Want My Soul is a bold and swaggering declaration that Spoon have undoubtedly still got it--in spades.
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Jul 31, 2014It takes a standard rock-band lineup and adds a sense of otherness by lightly dusting every instrument with effects, and arrives packed with beautiful, subtle detailing.
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UncutJul 30, 2014Everything shines out brighter and louder than ever before as they return from a three-year break. [Sep 2014, p.64]
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Jul 30, 2014The album is an enjoyable hodgepodge that trades neat cohesion for scattish variety.
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Jul 31, 2014They Want My Soul returns Spoon to rare form.
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Classic Rock MagazineDec 17, 2014They Want My Soul has a spiky, timeless quality, and frontman Britt Daniel's sharply wry lyrics add a nicely acidic edge to the sweetness of their melodies. [Oct 2014, p.91]
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Aug 8, 2014For the first time, a new Spoon LP feels like business as usual, a creative step sideways.
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Aug 5, 2014A solid road map of new found diversity and eclecticism is laid out throughout a large chunk of They Want My Soul, and despite the inevitable growing pains, Spoon really does seem poised to continue rising from the ashes of their near disappearance.
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Aug 4, 2014They Want My Soul is a cult record in the making from the quintessential cult group. Normal service has been resumed.
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Aug 4, 2014This isn’t a return to form so much as it is a chance for us to collectively celebrate consistency once again. Because the band still does give us its soul, we just may need to adjust our narrative around it.
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Aug 1, 2014Clearly, those searching for something new are better off looking elsewhere. But if it's dependable melodies and soaring choruses you're after, then They Want My Soul is an album you can count on. This is Spoon, after all.
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Jul 30, 2014The band’s dependable grasp of instantly joyous hooks still shows no sign of deserting them, and Britt Daniel’s raspy voice continues to marshal the tight groove at their core.... Only ‘I Just Don’t Understand’ hits a truly bum note, sounding eerily like Beady Eye.
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MojoAug 20, 2014Produced with Dave Fridmann and Joe Chiccarelli, the album benefits from the former's spacey soundscapes and the latter's commercial sensibility. [Sep 2014, p.96]
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Aug 12, 2014For the most part, though, it’s a hugely enjoyable and very welcome return.
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Alternative PressAug 8, 2014Call it growing pains for a storied discography, but the result leaves the album feeling unbalanced around the gems and less rewarding over multiple listens. [Sep 2014, p.110]
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Aug 4, 2014It promises much but never quite delivers.
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Jul 30, 2014The songs are strong--varying from ‘I Just Don’t Understand’’s jazz bar mood-changer to closer ‘New York Kiss’’ emotional farewell--but Spoon can be better than that.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 134 out of 145
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Mixed: 5 out of 145
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Negative: 6 out of 145
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Aug 5, 2014
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Sep 14, 2014
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Sep 13, 2014