Spoon - Kill The Moonlight

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"Kill the Moonlight is the fourth album from Austin, Texas indie rock band Spoon, released on August 20, 2002 to a great deal of critical acclaim.[1]"
eiliprfis

Poll Results

OptionVotes
"The Way We Get By" – 2:38 9
"Jonathon Fisk" – 3:15 8
"Small Stakes" – 3:00 6
"Don't Let It Get You Down" – 3:29 4
"Paper Tiger" – 3:07 4
"Back to the Life" – 2:21 3
"Vittorio E." – 3:39 2
"Stay Don't Go" – 3:35 2
"All the Pretty Girls Go to the City" – 3:12 1
"You Gotta Feel It" – 1:29 1
"Something to Look Forward To" – 2:17 0
"Someone Something" – 2:48 0


Zeno, Sunday, 8 February 2009 00:46 (sixteen years ago)

small stakes vs. stay don't go vs gotta feel it vs. back to the life

thats the way we get by

Zeno, Sunday, 8 February 2009 00:49 (sixteen years ago)

"Paper Tiger" is my favorite Spoon song to hear live.

Just as great on the album.

ilxor, Sunday, 8 February 2009 00:53 (sixteen years ago)

i always skip it,funny..

Zeno, Sunday, 8 February 2009 00:54 (sixteen years ago)

Never liked this as much as Girls Can Tell

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 8 February 2009 01:04 (sixteen years ago)

i think Girls Can Tell is more like a straightforward rock album, and this one has more interesting minmalist ideas in it, so it's the opposite for me

Zeno, Sunday, 8 February 2009 01:07 (sixteen years ago)

"stay don't go" - jonathon fisk is maybe my least favorite spoon song ever btw

your infinity in you is mad lifted (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 8 February 2009 02:08 (sixteen years ago)

Agreed on "Jonathon Fisk," way too straightforwardly rock for this album. It would have fit nicely on Telephono (both sonically, and quality wise) -- here, not so much.

ilxor, Sunday, 8 February 2009 02:25 (sixteen years ago)

yeah and i really like when their songs have more space, that one is so crammed w/ guitar iirc

your infinity in you is mad lifted (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 8 February 2009 02:28 (sixteen years ago)

i love this, also my favorite Spoon record:

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-music-2007/2153-1.jpg

Bee OK, Sunday, 8 February 2009 08:14 (sixteen years ago)

'The Way We Get By'... an elaboration of the underlying themes to 'Girls Can Tell'.

This whole album is solid though... as are most.

drainCosmetics, Sunday, 8 February 2009 08:21 (sixteen years ago)

This is incredibly tricky. First instinct is Stay Don't Go for the mouth percussion and falsetto, but I think the tambourine through Small Stakes is the most exciting thing ever. It makes me wonder why The Rolling Stones exist.

Sickamous Mouthall (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 8 February 2009 08:25 (sixteen years ago)

Spoon rock by bits and pieces, so I'm tempted to vote just for a favorite bit (the depth charger signal half a minute into Back to the Life), but they saved the best for first, this is between the opening two songs. Coin flipped, and that's The Way We Get By.

dad a, Sunday, 8 February 2009 09:09 (sixteen years ago)

One of the best rock albums of the 00s.

davek_00, Sunday, 8 February 2009 13:11 (sixteen years ago)

'paper tiger' because it does something unique and interesting using simple, sparse arrangements.

Charlie Howard, Sunday, 8 February 2009 13:20 (sixteen years ago)

worse thing about this band is dude's voice (and the mundane live show).

Charlie Howard, Sunday, 8 February 2009 13:21 (sixteen years ago)

what i originally considered b-teamers, i've developed a special affinity for someone something & don't let it get you down. they sound like they might have grown out of the same song and i like that they stuck them one after the other

now is the time to winterize your manscape (will), Sunday, 8 February 2009 13:30 (sixteen years ago)

at the time it seemed folks considered this a bit of a disappointment after GCT (maybe?), but i always liked it better

now is the time to winterize your manscape (will), Sunday, 8 February 2009 13:38 (sixteen years ago)

I just voted for "Don't Let It Get You Down", and I can't really think of a reason why... other than the fact that I really really like that song and would always be happy to hear it. for something so minimal, it seems surprisingly epic.

if you like it then you shoulda put a donk on it (bernard snowy), Sunday, 8 February 2009 15:06 (sixteen years ago)

also I was very happy the first time I listened to it on headphones and noticed the hard panning on the vox/piano and drums/guitar.

if you like it then you shoulda put a donk on it (bernard snowy), Sunday, 8 February 2009 15:09 (sixteen years ago)

I always had this album on when I'd drive north for riding lessons-"Back to the Life" always got me pumped, like Can doing jock jams. For this reason I'm going with the penultimate.

Morley Timmons, Monday, 9 February 2009 04:42 (sixteen years ago)

worse thing about this band is dude's voice (and the mundane live show).

― Charlie Howard, Sunday, February 8, 2009 1:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

wow guy

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 9 February 2009 04:48 (sixteen years ago)

haha i'm not a massive fan, so i implore you to take my comments with a grain of salt :)

Charlie Howard, Monday, 9 February 2009 04:58 (sixteen years ago)

lots of good choices. going with small stakes but this is a fab album. GCT is more even but this one has the higher highs.

call all destroyer, Monday, 9 February 2009 04:59 (sixteen years ago)

(and the mundane live show).

otm saw them at a festival about a year ago, mundane sums that up nicely.

wilter, Monday, 9 February 2009 05:02 (sixteen years ago)

i saw them in 2006-ish at a pretty good venue. sort of a relaxing show in the sense that i could wander off to get a beer occasionally without being too concerned about missing much.

Charlie Howard, Monday, 9 February 2009 05:05 (sixteen years ago)

saw 'em once and thought 'only ok,' saw 'em touring for Gimme Fiction and they really killed it.

call all destroyer, Monday, 9 February 2009 05:37 (sixteen years ago)

Dunno I guess maybe I'm, like Sarge said, a bigger fan than I thought: realized just now I've seen them 7 times and always enjoy it thoroughly.

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 9 February 2009 05:39 (sixteen years ago)

there's definitely a lot there to be a big fan of. there's an intelligence and poise to this band, lacking in a lot of their contemporaries. personally though, i've never managed to conjure more than a casual, dull appreciation.

Charlie Howard, Monday, 9 February 2009 05:44 (sixteen years ago)

This album is just a little bit too minimalist for me, I think if they've fleshed a few of the songs out a bit more, it would be a great album instead of a really good one. So, Jonathon Fisk.

nate woolls, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 20:30 (sixteen years ago)

i love spoon but both times i've seen them live they were pretty dull

congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 20:34 (sixteen years ago)

Re: Spoon being mundane live, I saw em a couple years ago, thought it was a good show, but a guy I worked with, a deadhead-y kinda dude, talked to me the next day and was like: "NOT A SINGLE GUITAR SOLO! WOULD IT KILL THEM TO PLAY A GUITAR SOLO!!" It really upset him. I LOLed.

tylerw, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 20:36 (sixteen years ago)

love this album, it's my favorite of theirs. it's all great but the structure of small stakes still blows me away (tension tension tension for the entire song, you're waiting for something big to happen, and then DRUM SOLO)

Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 20:37 (sixteen years ago)

ehhhh this is easily their worst album to my ears. still, a few good songs. went w/j fisk too.

and yeah they're a pretty dull live band. the records are usually all about super-tight construction and that either doesn't translate well to a show or if it does it ends up being one of those "why am i not just listening to the record?" things

pretzel walrus, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 20:38 (sixteen years ago)

who lets people like this write about music?

Life has gotten so much easier for these guys ever since Pavement broke up. After all, how many flannel-shirt wearing, floppy-haired, Fall sound-alikes can the average person swallow? Oh well, now that the playing field is theirs alone, Spoon do not disappoint. Kill The Moonlight is their most melodically accomplished work to date, shimmying through the primal tambourine shakes of "Small Stakes," breaking a sweat with the spiky lo-fi swagger of "Stay Don't Go," and getting all starry-eyed on the three-and-a-half minute acoustic epic "Don't Let It Get You Down." So good, you'll even forgive them for blatantly Malkmus-derived song titles like "Paper Tiger" and "Vittorio E." --Aidin Vaziri

mizzell, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 20:43 (sixteen years ago)

xpost, yeah, I wasn't blown away by Spoon live, though it was fun -- just not very adventurous. The one exception was probably "Paper Tiger" which became kind of monumental and intense onstage

tylerw, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 20:47 (sixteen years ago)

i think this record is more consistent than girls can tell, but i like the first half of girls can tell more.

mizzell, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 20:48 (sixteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Saturday, 14 February 2009 00:01 (sixteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Sunday, 15 February 2009 00:01 (sixteen years ago)

I got the tie-breaking vote in about 10 minutes ago

iatee, Sunday, 15 February 2009 00:02 (sixteen years ago)

the last 2 songs,who got 0 votes, are actualy great.
Fisk and All The Pretty Girls should got the 0 instead imo

Zeno, Sunday, 15 February 2009 00:09 (sixteen years ago)

two months pass...

But the riff in All The Pretty Girls sounds like... I dunno, um... a metal garage door, that's reverberating from a big V8 engine in a car in the garage behind it, and it's just reached a frequency that makes the door resonate, and that's what that riff sounds like. Not a guitar. A resonating garage door and a V8 engine.

Sickamous Mouthall (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 13:29 (sixteen years ago)

also I was very happy the first time I listened to it on headphones and noticed the hard panning on the vox/piano and drums/guitar.

You know the way in technical graphics/mechanical drawing where they leave in the construction lines and you can see how the diagram was put together? I've always thought Spoon songs are kinda like that.

ecuador_with_a_c, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 14:01 (sixteen years ago)

I fucking love this band. Wish I'd cottoned on to them in like 1998 or something instead of 2007.

Sickamous Mouthall (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 16:30 (sixteen years ago)

They are doing three back to back to back shows in Austin this summer. Different openers for each show - Black Joe Lewis, Trail of Dead, Low, Atlas Sound.

I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 21:58 (sixteen years ago)

eight months pass...

I've been going through their catalog in response to another thread and jesus, KTM stands like head and shoulders above everything else. I don't think I voted in this poll, but am rather amazed that "Don't Let It Get You Down" didn't destroy the competition. I've only played it like a thousand times this past weekend. The totally fucked up production is the secret. Not just massive fake stereo, but massive fake stereo done wrong, which makes you keep hitting replay in the hopes that the song will finally fire on all cylinders (which it never does).

dlp9001, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 01:40 (fifteen years ago)

The second half tails off though.

Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 19 January 2010 01:42 (fifteen years ago)

I don't know. Between DLIGYD, You Got To Feel It and Someone Somthing, there's 3 totally solid tracks out of the last six. (And I like the other three too!)

Nobody voted for Someone Something! How weird. Can't understand why, though to be fair there are a lot of other contendors.

dlp9001, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 01:47 (fifteen years ago)

Something To Look Forward To is totally fine as well (the other no-vote option).

dlp9001, Tuesday, 19 January 2010 01:47 (fifteen years ago)

paper tiger is the best song on this album and one of the best they've ever written

J0rdan S., Tuesday, 19 January 2010 01:50 (fifteen years ago)

six months pass...

"You Gotta Feel It" = 1:29 long smile on my face.

Moreno, Tuesday, 10 August 2010 17:16 (fourteen years ago)

ten years pass...

I haven't listened to this album in years, for no good reason. I haven't listened to Spoon at all in years, also for no good reason. Momentum thwarted by hiatus? Anyway, I heard a song from this on the radio today and was suddenly inspired to re-listen to the album, and man, it's just so good. Immediately flashed back to so many good memories, not least my memory of how much I loved this album and its predecessor. Feels like ... simpler times? I dunno, but I relished every second of its 35 minutes like I was looking at baby pictures or something.

Josh in Chicago, Monday, 21 September 2020 23:12 (four years ago)

Man - I hear ya. I can conjure waiting for CTA at certain L platforms and bus stops listening to 'Girls Can Tell' & this rekkid. Simpler times and good memories.

BlackIronPrison, Tuesday, 22 September 2020 00:43 (four years ago)

This is one of those albums that I pretty much only listened to in full front to back, it goes down so easy, it feels more like a multi-part suite than an album

turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 22 September 2020 04:11 (four years ago)


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