• Record Label: Merge
  • Release Date: May 10, 2005
User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 130 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 5 out of 130

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  1. RickyR.
    Jan 20, 2010
    5
    Simple album from a simple band. Decent.
  2. LyleB
    Jul 10, 2006
    4
    very unlistenable
  3. AaronE
    Oct 17, 2005
    4
    This is no Kill the Moonlight, though a gem like "Camera" almost makes this album worth owning. This band's sound does not grow or diversify album by album, but keeps the same plodding indie-pop slug step from song to song. Save your money for Wolf Parade's "Apologies to the Queen Mary" or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
  4. daved
    May 20, 2005
    6
    Spoon has lost just about all of the sense of urgency that made their previous records great. Girls Can Tell and Kill the Moonlight sounded like they were going to change music, this just sounds like a MOR band trying to improve their reputation by ripping Lennon/Bowie formulas and throwing in a garage beat on occasion. They sound old and tired. Not that that's a bad thing, as bands Spoon has lost just about all of the sense of urgency that made their previous records great. Girls Can Tell and Kill the Moonlight sounded like they were going to change music, this just sounds like a MOR band trying to improve their reputation by ripping Lennon/Bowie formulas and throwing in a garage beat on occasion. They sound old and tired. Not that that's a bad thing, as bands like Wrens and the Go-Betweens released great pop gems well into their later years, but the songwriting here seems like a big step back from GCT and KtM.. Weak melodies, weaker lyrics, no sense of purpose (Really, waht is the point of a song like I Turn My Camera On?). The best track here is Was It You?, a haunting minimal track light on lyrics and structure. I hope they go back to the drawing room for their next record, and maybe they could use that track as a starting point. In any case, this is a real let-down, though admittedly one that could still grow on me a bit. Expand
  5. JimmyJ
    Sep 24, 2005
    4
    Some good bits and some pretty nasty bits. "I Turn My Camera On" is an awful plodding no-where song in the vein of the Rolling Stones Emotional Rescue. "The Infinate Pet" takes Sonny Boy Williamson's "Help Me" riff and adds an indie feel - Urgh! It works much better when they stay more within the indie rock formula, such as opener "The Beast and Dragon", "Two Sides" and "The Delicate Place"
Metascore
84

Universal acclaim - based on 30 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 30
  2. Negative: 0 out of 30
  1. The overall effect can be vaguely schizo -- many of these tracks seem more like cool fragments than true songs.
  2. Under The Radar
    70
    There is no "The Way We Get By" on this record, as this is far more an album of interlocking pieces than an album of singles that neither makes a naked grab for the turnstiles nor an uprecedented reach for reinvention. [#9]
  3. It is phenomenal.