Underappreciated Albums: Spoon - Girls Can Tell (2001)

No band makes me want to drop out of college and be a musician more than Spoon. Their penchant for raw, emotional music provides a refreshingly stark contrast with much of popular music's Auto-tune-drudged sound. The Austin-based quartet's distinctive, creative sound has earned them the respect of their peers and of critics -- Metacritic ranked Spoon as the most critically-acclaimed artist of the past decade in 2010. In addition, being featured frequently in television and film soundtracks has garnered them a widespread audience. 2002's Kill the Moonlight, and particularly the track "The Way We Get By", served as the band's breakthrough. Since then, Spoon has released three increasingly popular albums, with 2010's Transference debuting at #4 on the Billboard 200.

The attention and accolades bestowed upon Kill the Moonlight and Spoon's subsequent albums are well-deserved. It's nice to see the band get the attention that their talent merits. What is often forgotten by the casual fan, though, is that Kill the Moonlight was not Spoon's debut. In fact, the band released three albums prior to Kill the Moonlight, including the suburb Girls Can Tell in 2001. Girls Can Tell saw Spoon finally achieve widespread critical acclaim. In terms of public consciousness, though, it served as more of a primer for Kill the Moonlight than a truly appreciated record. This is a shame, because by neglecting Girls Can Tell, Spoon fans and rock music fans in general are missing out on one of the best albums of the past ten years.  This album showed Spoon in the midst the maturation process that has taken them from being a promising post-punk group to being one of America's biggest indie bands. Most of all, Girls Can Tell was when Spoon really developed the groove-based sound that they continue to expand on today. 

"Everything Hits At Once" establishes that groove from the get-go, with bouncy vibes and keyboards accenting frontman Britt Daniel's deliberate and almost anguished vocals. The song builds an unassuming intensity so poignant that by the time Daniel utters "I go to sleep and think that you're next to me" for the last time, you feel as if you've just been through the experience with him. "Me and the Bean" is another standout that opens up more and harnesses a pure raw energy. 

Spoon also show off their pop sensibilities without relying on cliches in "Anything You Want", the album's lead single. Simplistic but clever keyboard, organ, and guitar parts are fused to create yet another track that compels the listener's foot to start tapping. The music is the most optimistic on the album. As usual, however, Daniel's lyrics narrate the darker side of relationships.

The band speeds things up with the lick-driven "Take a Walk", followed up by the psychedelic folk tune "1020 AM."  The album concludes with "Chicago at Night", an eerie, organ-driven song in which Daniel proclaims, "Everybody's at disadvantage, speaking with their second language." For a band that experienced considerable disadvantage early in their career, Spoon is now certainly well-versed in success, due in no small part to Girls Can Tell. Nobody should keep missing out on this one.