Kill the Moonlight
I first found the 2002 album for the first time in my local record store Vinyl Fever. I had been a Spoon fan from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and the occasional song from Gimme Fiction, but my adoration of Spoon stopped there. Until, that is, I chose the vinyl version and proceeded to the cash register to check out.
It happened to be National Record Store Day and I received three free sample records, which was great timing, seeing as I had just recently purchased a new turntable.
I took it home and removed it from its dust jacket. Placed in on the turntable and sent it spinning. What would follow would be 34 minutes and 50 seconds of minimalist, alt rock wonderment. This was heaven.
The opening track “Small Stakes” begins with a rhythmic bass drum pounding into the onset of what sounds like a distorted organ and eventually tromping piano, this plus Britt Daniel’s voice and little else makes for a wonderful opener to an intelligent simple album.
“The Way We Get By” was featured on The OC at one point and gained decent popularity from the appearance, and may very well have affected the success of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.
“Paper Tiger” is the most unique song in the album in my humble opinion. It is begun in the style of an electronic song created with acoustic sounds. Processed but still clean.
I could write about every song, but honestly they are all nearly perfect, an incredible feat in indie music, much too overlooked (although it did place #49 on Blender’s list of the Top 100 Indie Albums of All Time).
Every song seems perfectly crafted, not too much of any instrument. Consistent tempo, happy piano, never overdone or over processed sounding. These are all reasons why I chose this as one of my Perfect 10’s. As much as there is good new music there are still dozens of incredible albums to be discovered by those who haven’t lived on Pitchfork for the past years. So expect me to write about the lost gems as much as the new stuff.
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