“Gimme Fiction” by Spoon

Spoon
Gimme Fiction
[Merge Records]

Britt Daniel and Jim Eno seem to thrive on ignoring conventional wisdom. After Elektra Records dropped them back in 1998, they responded in 2001 with Girls Can Tell, which sold more records that year than their entire back catalogue had managed in five years. While people were trying to figure out 2002′s Kill The Moonlight, they toured the hell out of it and eventually saw one of its tunes (“The Way We Get By”) placed on “The O.C.” Their latest album was pushed back from its original release date nearly a year ago, and speculation ran wild, claiming that they’d finally run out of ideas and were trying to micromanage a dud into something passable.

Well, if that is the real story, it worked. Pushing aside the more quirky pop Spoon has become known for, Gimme Fiction is an ode to straight-up rock ‘n’ roll. Channeling Billy Joel’s bouncing piano lines and mining The Rolling Stones for a few of their disco-ish moments, you’d have to be dead to avoid singing along to this record. Words of wisdom from Daniel himself: “When you don’t feel it, it shows/ They tear out your soul/ But when you believe, they call it rock ‘n’ roll.”