Spoon: Girls Can Tell : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Austin's favorite trio dishes out eleven helpings of diverse alt-pop on what may wind up being the finest record of its ilk all year. Charged by song sculptor/frontman Britt Daniel, this start-to-finish triumph never underachieves even if it has an effortless aura at times. The dually twangy and jazzy heartbreaker "Everything Hits at Once" ("Don't say a word/The last one's still stinging") is a song worth obsessing over, but there's similar merit in the edgy punk blues of "Believing Is Art" and the bass-thumping, snare-snapping rhythms of "Take the Fifth." Recalling the Pixies and Pavement at their accessible best on "Anything You Want," kneeling at the altar of Big Star for the acoustic charmer "1020 AM" and revisiting new wave on both "Take a Walk" and "Lines in the Suit," Spoon's instant classic has something to offer every hook-starved indie rock worshipper.