- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
It is phenomenal.
-
All eleven songs on Gimme Fiction are immaculately crafted, concise pop gems.
-
Each song glows with infinitesimal joys, tiny pointillist production flourishes noticeable only under close scrutiny. But in rounding out their sound, they brought the viewer close enough to see the brushstrokes and the smudges.
-
What sticks out most about Spoon, five albums in, is how singular they sound, like a jut of brilliant rock standing unfazed by crashing tides of trends and hopeful hype.
-
Entertainment WeeklyStrings swoon, falsetto voices sigh, and counterpoint piano lines glide. Yet nothing sounds fussy. [20 May 2005, p.75]
-
Fiction finds Daniel and Eno exploring the tension between a tight rhythm section and chaotic production techniques (from messy guitar parts to bizarre samples). And that provides an edge to the music that not only makes for an attention-grabbing collection, but also rewards repeated listens.
-
PopMattersReview #1: The sound of Gimme Fiction is as ideal a conceptualization of the band as could be imagined. [score=100]; Review #2: "Gimme Fiction" has a sense of mischief and curiosity that renders it more consistently varied and just plain more listenable than "Moonlight". [score=80]
-
Again raises the standard for thoughtful, well-crafted pop.
-
UncutA highly original band in its prime. [Jun 2005, p.107]
-
FilterIt's exactly the record that everyone hoped Spoon would make. [#15, p.98]
-
PlanetThe best since their debut. [#10, p.70]
-
Q MagazineIt's a bewitching formula. [Jun 2005, p.120]
-
Free from the trappings of hype this is simply a great album. Rock 'n' roll: just like they used to make.
-
Gimme Fiction may not be your favorite Spoon record right now, but give it a few years.
-
Like Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot into A Ghost Is Born, Spoon's fifth full-length finds further symbiosis between Britt Daniel's emotional obfuscation and the band's spare, uptown backbeat, then looses drummer Jim Eno to metronome the rest.
-
Though I can imagine putting this on at year's end and remembering every song with a kind of surprised admiration, I can't imagine doing it any sooner--or any later either.
-
Spoon's loosest, most eclectic effort yet.
-
You know a good sound when you want to take out a second mortgage to buy headphones good enough to appreciate it.
-
It torpedoes the often-justifiable notion that Spoon's music feels like it was made with safety in mind, and that its far-and-wide excursions are just that--temporary steps away from a safe, solid path.
-
Spoon continues to build one of the most consistent, and distinctive, bodies of work in indie rock -- the band makes changes and takes chances from album to album, but ends up sounding exactly how Spoon should sound each time.
-
Surely the power of Spoon’s miraculous songwriting skills are enough to keep the listener captivated, but the fact remains that the only surprise the album contains is the apparent lack of innovation.
-
Nearly every song comes off as unassuming in its rightful place. Each track has a designed role, and for that reason you won’t need to use the skip button.
-
Even the most direct songs here have a precision craftsmanship rarely heard in something that is still, at heart, a rock album.
-
The overall effect can be vaguely schizo -- many of these tracks seem more like cool fragments than true songs.
-
Under The RadarThere 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]
-
BlenderThis return to murky obscurantism, thankfully, comes with a return to guitar noise. [Jun 2005, p.115]
-
MojoNever less than fresh-sounding and curious. [Jun 2005, p.110]
-
SpinFiction is less nervous than its predecessors but emotionally knottier. [May 2005, p.103]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 120 out of 130
-
Mixed: 5 out of 130
-
Negative: 5 out of 130
-
Apr 24, 2018
-
Aug 16, 2015
-
Nov 20, 2012