5.09.2005
Boss sounds
Two highly anticipated new discs are leaving me ambivalent of late; I find the need to convince myself I should listen more than I find I want to listen. But, these new discs, Bruce Springsteen's Devil's and Dust and Spoon's Gimme Fiction, both seem like potential growers. I've spent the most time with the Springsteen disc, and it has revealed a few subtle charms thus far. Hearing a recent NPR review from Fresh Air correspondent Ken Tucker helped to highlight some of the more rewarding quiet moments on the disc. Springsteen helpfully alternates uptempo tracks and ballads, and I've thus far found that I want to skip past the more ruminative stretches to find songs with a beat. But Tucker points out some of Springsteen's best wordplay in years, lending clarity that reveals a depth that escaped me on those first few listens.
The criticism thus far has been pointed and without restraint. Some simply call it boring, lazy or uninspiring, while others, such as City Pages' Steve Perry, point out the problems with what seem to be recycled lyrical themes and unambitious song structures. The truth of the disc is somewhere in between. It's nowhere near Springsteen's best (Perry rightly lumps it in with Human Touch and Lucky Town, two discs that, while certainly his worst still contain enough good tracks that one would be silly to completely avoid them), yet it does contain enough of what Springsteen does best to guardedly recommend it (that falsetto he uncorks a couple of times is revelation enough for now).
Spoon's Gimme Fiction is a different thing entirely. Having come late to that party thanks to a well-placed promo copy of Kill the Moonlight in advance of the band's show in Iowa City a few years back, this is the first Spoon disc I come to with expectations. Not able to remember that initial response to KTM -- save for the fact that it hit quickly enough that I turned around a rave review in a couple of days and was familiar enough with the material to recognize it at the show that weekend -- I find myself wondering how long it will take for these songs to hit me with similar force, assuming that will happen at all. Where KTM was so stripped-down and immediate that the songs' hooks were quick to sink in, Gimme Fiction seems more fleshed out and involved, a seeming return of sorts to the band's earlier, more obtuse work.
Both Spoon and Springsteen will stay in heavy rotation for a while, fighting for airtime with Brendan Benson (both Addicted to Love and the One Mississippi reissue), Elvis Costello (King of America reissued, finally), Ryan Adams, LCD Soundsystem and the, well, torrent of bitTorrent stuff I've acquired of late. But as competition from other new discs grows, it's going to take more than listener loyalty to keep them there.
The criticism thus far has been pointed and without restraint. Some simply call it boring, lazy or uninspiring, while others, such as City Pages' Steve Perry, point out the problems with what seem to be recycled lyrical themes and unambitious song structures. The truth of the disc is somewhere in between. It's nowhere near Springsteen's best (Perry rightly lumps it in with Human Touch and Lucky Town, two discs that, while certainly his worst still contain enough good tracks that one would be silly to completely avoid them), yet it does contain enough of what Springsteen does best to guardedly recommend it (that falsetto he uncorks a couple of times is revelation enough for now).
Spoon's Gimme Fiction is a different thing entirely. Having come late to that party thanks to a well-placed promo copy of Kill the Moonlight in advance of the band's show in Iowa City a few years back, this is the first Spoon disc I come to with expectations. Not able to remember that initial response to KTM -- save for the fact that it hit quickly enough that I turned around a rave review in a couple of days and was familiar enough with the material to recognize it at the show that weekend -- I find myself wondering how long it will take for these songs to hit me with similar force, assuming that will happen at all. Where KTM was so stripped-down and immediate that the songs' hooks were quick to sink in, Gimme Fiction seems more fleshed out and involved, a seeming return of sorts to the band's earlier, more obtuse work.
Both Spoon and Springsteen will stay in heavy rotation for a while, fighting for airtime with Brendan Benson (both Addicted to Love and the One Mississippi reissue), Elvis Costello (King of America reissued, finally), Ryan Adams, LCD Soundsystem and the, well, torrent of bitTorrent stuff I've acquired of late. But as competition from other new discs grows, it's going to take more than listener loyalty to keep them there.
