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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Kill The Moonlight
by Spoon


9.1

based on 21 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 36 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Merge Records

The Austin, Tex. indie rockers return with their fourth album, following 2001's critically acclaimed 'Girls Can Tell.'

LABEL:	Merge
RELEASE DATE:	20 August 2002
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Indie, Rock

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Village Voice (Consumer Guide)

Something much bigger than last year's Girls Can Tell, the breakthrough album skeptics like me took for a fluke peak.

100

Entertainment Weekly

Could be the Strokes in 10 years--if they work hard. [Listen 2 This Supplement, Aug 2002, p.14]

100

Drawer B

Spoon rebounds from the insurmountable challenge of following up the colossally brilliant Girls Can Tell with an equally impeccable album.

100

PopMatters

Meticulously choppy and frequently free of inherent genre boundaries, it's an askew masterpiece of brains, brawn, heart, and soul.

Stylus Magazine

If this isn’t a breakthrough album for them that takes them to the top of the heap, seeing them showered with money, women and limos, well, then the consumer and music fan is not doing their job.

Splendid

The complexity and depth of the songs has increased; the band sounds less like they're trying to channel The Pixies, and more like they're reaching toward the sublime.

Delusions of Adequacy

Will be among many year-end best-of lists, and deservingly so.

Launch.com

This is simple music, driving music, perfect music for getting a good bath from the asinine perils of nu-metal and modern rock.

Neumu.net

Moonlight, which grows more and more likeable with repeated listens, is Spoon's strongest effort yet, topping 2001's Girls Can Tell and even 1998's A Series of Sneaks.

Pitchfork

Spoon's latest is their magnum opus to date; it takes a scalpel to the highlight reel of their career, cutting and pasting a 35-minute tour de force that ends too soon.

All Music Guide

Even the album's sparest moments feature Spoon's much-heralded knack with catchy melodies and hooks, even if songs such as "Don't Let It Get You Down" would be even more memorable with a slightly more fleshed-out approach.

Magnet

While every cut is identifiably Spoon and the album will satisfy hard-line fans of the band, a fiery R&B element is now a significant component. [#55, p.88]

Blender

Singer-songwriter Britt Daniel's gift for obtuse yet engaging melody is now where it ought to be: up front. [#9, p.155]

Dusted Magazine

It’s that rare record that’s equal parts innovation and familiarity, or what one might refer to as a perfectly designed and executed experiment in indie aesthetics.

Billboard

Yet another brilliant pop record for the college radio crowd.

Village Voice

The arrangements, referencing indie-rock more than participating in it, pile on heft to the small-life tragedies: Matt Brown's sax toughens up Spoon's welterweight ranking, while [Eggo] Johanson's piano gives it roots, rag, and bonus rhythm.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Daniel diminishes his melodies to fit the demands of arty cadence throughout Kill The Moonlight's first half, which makes the more generously melodic second side not just welcome, but inspiring.

Uncut

Spoon's secret is that this tension is never quite released, the martial beat never breaks down, full rock music never quite kicks in. [Oct 2002, p.120]

Austin Chronicle

Built mainly of solitary guitar/keyboard figures and elementary rhythm parts, the songs are too direct for this to be Daniel's Kid A, but he's obviously enjoying tweaking people's expectations.

Spin

The result is indie-rock as passive-aggressive blues implosion. [Sep 2002, p.128]

Rolling Stone

With Kill the moonlight, Spoon complete their transformation from ragtag rockers into beat-driven post-punks.

The average user rating for this album is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 36 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Hügo T gave it a9:
I cant agreeeeee with Entertainment Weekly that ''Could be the Strokes in 10 years--if they work hard.'', absolute rubish they saying!!As you can see bands quality doesn't slope down at all, contrary to The Strokes, yes they're not bad post-punk group, but it doesn't look like to me very much that, they are able to repeat their success with Is This It.?. In fact it is getting worse with every next album.....thats true, objectively!!Next time you better think twice before you start comparing classic rock band with repetitive post-punk average......

Elliot W gave it a10:
Ha! Rolling Stone and Spin panned this album. Lesson be learned kiddies, those mags are trash.

Jeremy L gave it a10:
Man, is this album awesome A brilliant masterpiece and Spoon at the top of their form

Jim E gave it a2:
a waste of money

reid gave it a9:
really really good

ralph gave it a9:
wonderful stuff ...where have these guys been hiding ?

Chelsea D gave it a10:
Whoever said that they'd take Bright Eyes over Spoon needs to listen to this album a little more, the two sound absolutely nothing to do with each other (except for the Home EP, and them joining Saddle Creek to release an EP[s?]) musically. This is one of my favorite albums in recent years from one of my favorite bands, not as good as Girls Can Tell, but it'll take a complete masterpiece to top that one (as it was, a masterpiece).

Kill The Moonlight by Spoon

Kill The Moonlight
by Spoon