Rock of Texas

By Josh Tyrangiel

A chorus of pleading critics--whether on behalf of Iranian films, an innovative TV show or the novels of David Foster Wallace--usually has the exact opposite effect of its intent. Instead of inspiring people to try something new, it leaves them feeling oppressed by the rapture of specialists.

So ignore the fact that Spoon is now more than a decade into a career that's as deep in critical praise as commercial shrugs. Ignore it not simply because critical unanimity is a turnoff but because it tends to be conferred on the educational or exotic. Spoon's sixth album, unfortunately titled Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (out July 10), has no sitars or harps, no qawwali singing or convoluted metanarratives. It's just 36 minutes of taut, minimalist rock played mostly on guitar and piano and sung by Britt Daniel, a reedy Texan with a dry, been-around-a-bit voice. It's exotic like Clint Eastwood--and just about as direct.

The opener, Don't Make Me a Target, is a duel between an optimistic piano and a guitar strummed with such tension that each chord cuts like a serrated tooth on a very long knife. It yields to the euphoric You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb, which like a lot of Daniel songs--he's the chief melody writer, guitarist and lyricist--is about a breakup. But rather than get pinned down by regret ("We lost it long ago, you and me"), Daniel's vocal diverts a few abstract lines in the chorus ("Blow out that cherry bomb for me/ It's gonna burn right up your sleeve") into something tender, while the melody drives straight on.

Most of the 10 songs on Ga Ga fly by this way. The only evidence that The Underdog and Rhthm and Soul leave behind is memorable phrases ("It can't all be wedding cake/ It can't all be boiled away") and choruses that keep your hips moving. Anything that gets in the way of velocity has been jettisoned. The closer, Black like Me, is as near as Spoon gets to a ballad, but even it steps on the gas halfway through. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga doesn't have any tricks up its sleeve, and it won't make you a better person. But give it a chance, and it'll work wonders nonetheless.