Hot Thoughts

Hot Thoughts is another top tier indie rock record from the most consistent band in the game.

This 10-song collection is dominated less by taut rhythm guitar than by synths, handclaps, and kickdrums. ... A band that never gets sick of adding tools to its bag of tricks.

[Britt Daniel's] big statement is his Body of Work, of which every fine part adds up to a greater sum. Here comes another one.

The album, fun though it is, also burns with anger and tension. It's another way Spoon throws into sharp relief what there--and what's not. [No. 141, p.51]

All Spoon albums have some great songs and tasteful production touches, but Hot Thoughts might be the first time they didn’t do another year’s slightly tweaked version of Girls Can Tell. To arrive at such a worthwhile new vista roughly 24 years in is a pretty serious achievement, and all with no more overt fanfare than a humble presentation of one of their best offerings.

ts sleek, dance-oriented patina veers appreciably from the linear evolution of the Austinites' previous output. This might be Spoon's most radio-friendly release ever, and given its jarring position in the catalog, their most adventurous.

This is not a dilettantish push into the unknown. Spoon has been heading in this direction for years, and in many ways Hot Thoughts is the payoff.

Spoon’s bravest excursions to date, brilliant and distinct in their own way.

The whole record is crafted with an air of distrust, but its execution is surgically precise. Spoon’s stream of critical acclaim shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.

Overall Hot Thoughts doubles down on what we already knew: that Spoon are a band always looking to push themselves, a fact that seems to be getting more acute with each passing album, and it should be celebrated.

Hot Thoughts sounds like Spoon and Dave Fridmann’s idea of a futuristic, guitarless record, which is to say it’s full immaculately constructed rock songs arranged on layers and layers of synthesizers and studio fireworks.

One of their strongest albums in a while, Hot Thoughts is more proof that Spoon only get better at introducing new ideas into their music, while sounding unmistakably like themselves, as the years pass.

Listen close and you can practically hear the frontman digging in his heels, pushing back on the idea of Spoon as a tidy lifestyle accessory.

Nearly 25 years in, his group has made maybe their best record yet--a line that been repeated, accurately enough, with most every record they've made.

Whilst Hot Thoughts may divide fans, it stands as proof that class is permanent. Spoon are still one of the most forward-thinking rock bands around, and we’re still very lucky to have them 25 years later.

Spoon are a band who are impossible to second-guess, and one deserving of much more attention. [May 2017, p.101]

The album strikes almost the perfect balance between traditional songs and adventurous sounds, which makes it stand out in Spoon’s extensive catalog of great albums.

While this may not be the most cohesive record that Spoon have ever produced, it is one brimming with ideas (one might say overflowing), and serves as testament that more than 20 years into their career this is still a band with plenty to say.

A fine bounce-back from the lackluster They Want My Soul, as they seemed to have found their attitude and swagger. The glitzy, moody atmosphere they conjure up is a hella good look. [Apr 2017, p.82]

Hot Thoughts finds Spoon at the peak of their considerable powers, their ninth album effortlessly unfolding and revealing its mysteries as they cement their place in the firmament of undeniably great rock bands. [Apr 2017, p.34]

Spoon have been together for over 20 years now, yet it’s clear from this ninth full-length that their inspiration remains plentiful. In fact, Hot Thoughts is a surge of vivid creativity that veers between straightforward indie-pop and more experimental art pop.

The tinkering of the trim Spoon attitude has become the most engaging part of their latter-day career. For a band that seems built on a reliable formula, they remain full of possibilities.

Hot Thoughts is no game-changer, and the band risks sounding as safe as Coldplay at times.

A planned dalliance, Hot Thoughts reveals its irony: a well-thought rush of blood, a planned frisson. It’s a turn on with limits.

It doesn’t always work, not least in ‘Shotgun’’s iffy mix of Nashville-ready instrumentals and a chugging house beat. On the flipside, ‘Do I Have To Talk You Into It’ sticks so stubbornly to the Spoon template it could be a discarded number from any of their previous records.

Not bad, but not brilliant.

Hot Thoughts is often at its most appealing, though, when it sees Spoon sticking to what they've long proven they know how to do best. That's not universally the case: The album's only straight-ahead garage rocker, the thudding “Shotgun,” is so uncharacteristically regressive and lunkheaded that it might as well be a Kings of Leon song.

The main feeling it provokes is sincere admiration at a job well done, but a raised pulse, unfortunately, is something Spoon can't craft from scratch. [Apr 2017, p.96]