Gimme Fiction

In an era of overwhelming truths and spin, it’s fortunate music can still evoke the comforting fiction into which we desire to fold ourselves. “I got a feeling and then it got to me,” sings Spoon’s Britt Daniels in the opening track on Gimme Fiction, “The Beast and Dragon, Adored.” In this deliberately complex album, Spoon presents multi-layered pop songs and a fuller, heavier sound than in any of its previous albums. The lyrics, often abstract, refer to not-so-universal stories and mythologies, yet compound that sought-after fiction. Britt’s bouncing falsetto on “I Turn My Camera On” hints at his recent Prince fixation; the hesitating instrumentation of “The Delicate Place” depicts an intimate exchange between lovers. Other favorites include the half-timed “My Mathematical Mind,” the handclap littered “They Never Got You” driven forward by drummer Jim Eno, and the most fictional of all, “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine,” dressed with viola and cello from Austin’s Tosca Strings. Check out a free mp3 of “I Turn My Camera On” on www.matadorrecords.com.