Over the last two weeks I counted down my ten favorite albums of 2002. Over the next two, I’ll feature ten critically acclaimed albums from the same year that somehow escaped me.
Spoon is an Austin indie rock band that’s been recording since 1996. I first learned about them following the release of 2005’s Gimme Fiction, their fifth album. Since then I’ve picked up 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and 2014’s They Want Me Soul, somehow missing out on 2010’s Transference.
I’m a big fan of the three Spoon albums I own. Each is an effective showcase of the band’s spare, minimalist sound and frontman Britt Daniel’s raspy, snarling vocals.
The band’s most critically-acclaimed album, though, is 2002’s Kill the Moonlight. Based on the songs I’ve heard, it has much in common with the albums that followed, and that’s a good thing.
We get high in back seats of cars
We break into mobile homes
We go to sleep to “Shake Appeal”
Never wake up on our own
[Chorus]
And that’s the way we get by
Way we get by
And that’s the way we get by
Way we get by
[Verse 2]
We go out in stormy weather
We rarely practice discern
We make love to “Some Weird Sin”
We seek out the taciturn
[Chorus]
[Verse 3]
We found a new kind of dance in a magazine
Tried it out it’s like nothing you ever seen
You sweet talk like a cop and you know it
You bought a new bag of pot, said let’s make a new start
[Chorus]
And that’s the way to my heart
The way to my heart
That’s the way we get by
Way we get by
[Outro]
We get high in back seats of cars
We put faith in our concerns
Fall in love to “Down on the Street”
We believe in the sum of ourselves
I said that’s the way we get by
This song sounds instantly familiar. Perhaps I’ve heard it before. I like the sound.