They Want My Soul

Editors’ Notes

During the extended break following the release of 2010’s Transference, the musicians in Spoon recharged with side-projects, studio work, and ventures in producing—all of which come to bear brilliantly on the band’s ninth full-length release. Opening with the churning guitar and crackling overdrive of “Rent I Pay,” They Want My Soul is Spoon’s most sonically adventurous album to date. “Inside Out” features the band’s lean-and-mean pop signature, but its production flourishes add depth and color—a distant smear of vintage synth-strings here, a celestial sweep harp there. Our favorite moments—like when the brittle acoustic guitar of “Knock Knock Knock” is interrupted by a nasty squall of feedback and immediately soothed by echoing “oohs,” or the bass-and-maraca pulse of “Outlier”—combine whip-smart songwriting with widescreen production.