I’m a casual fan, at best, of Spoon, the alt-rock band hailing from Austin, Texas.

I first discovered them in 2005 after the release of Gimme Fiction, a brainy funk album that didn’t sound like anything else I’d heard. I bought their next record, 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (think I got the right number of Ga’s) and enjoyed it but didn’t return to it very often.

I never had the urge to do what I often do when I discover an established band, which is gobble up their back catalog to see how much of it sticks. These guys have released eight albums over the past 18 years, a few of them critical smashes, but I steered clear.

I even missed the release of Transference in 2010. Its existence was news to me before writing today’s blog entry.

But when they received a lot of advance praise this year for their “comeback” record They Want My Soul, I was intrigued. So I bought the album, and was thrilled to discover it’s my favorite of the bunch.

Spoon’s songs are simply cooler than everybody else’s. They have slinky, sexy grooves and mysterious melodies. Britt Daniels’ gravelly lead vocals complement the wicked rhythm section and creative, left-field production choices turn the whole deal into an indie rock carnival.

Lead single ‘Do You’ is yearning and playful and instantly crush-worthy. It, and the rest of They Want My Soul, have me thinking about exploring that back catalog after all.