Disco de Spoon: “Telephono/Soft Effects”

Once or twice every 15 years I hear an outstanding rock songwriter (Ray Davies, Robert Pollard,)- it's an exciting energizing feeling. And it's also a feeling like, "I'm gonna have a listening relationship with this artist for a long time." That's the feeling I got when I heard the songs of Britt Daniel (who has an extremely compelling charismatic singing voice. He let's it all out on this one! Shouting, screaming, singing melodies from a raw place.)

This CD (and EP)are his early efforts and, although rawer than later Spoon songs, it rocks with attitude, excitement, honesty, and some killer pop hooks (e.g. track 5 "Nefarious".) The songs on "Telephono" have jumpy song structures, some girl-boy harmonies, soft-loud dynamics and I was blasting it while driving in my car today. I actually thanked God for letting me hear this CD. That's how grateful I am to have had this recording come into my hands (and ears). I love it.

I'm one of those people who think Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is Spoon's best CD. while these two recordings have some good songs, many are only interesting for about 20 seconds. I think Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is the perfect blend of Telefono's rawness and the more polished Kill The Moonlight phase. Still, Cvantez, Idiot Driver and Plastic Mylar are some of the more memorable tracks here.

It's great that one can finally get these albums without spending $[...] on ebay. The music isn't their best, but if you can't get enough Spoon, these CDs are good listens and still better than most of the crap on the radio.

One question......Why is this issued as a 2 disc set? All the songs together only take up about 50 minutes, which means it would fit on one CD with 20+ minutes to spare. A way for the record company to jak the price up I guess. At any rate disc 1 is not as good as disc 2. The songs on disc 1 are very simplistic, and dont show much in the way of creativity or song writting. Disc 2 is much better, with better depth to the song writting itself. I am just being introduced to Spoon, & must say this offering isnt as impressive as a couple others........Worth a listen, but not much more......