SOUND BITES

As has been established at this point in their 20+ years of existence, Spoon is incapable of making a bad record. Even their missteps can be boiled down to minor gripes; on previous release They Want My Soul , though, I felt Dave Fridmann's in-the-red production style didn't do the songs justice, and as such was left just a little cold by a Spoon record for the first time... well, ever. So, on tenth record Hot Thoughts , Fridmann's been enlisted again. However, the difference this time out is that the songs seem more suited to our modern, loud times. There's a noticeable shift away from indie rock here, as the band explores a more rhythmic avenue for the majority of the songs. Beats pulse, guitars jangle, and there are a lot more background sounds happening here than on previous Spoon albums. It's not as though they've never experimented before, but this is the first time they've employed such an exploratory nature of such an extent; to be clear, there'

Any goodwill Bush built up with the familiar yet forward pushing Man On the Run three years ago is effectively wiped out on seventh record Black and White Rainbows . The aim seems to be creating rich, important stadium pop/rock anthems akin to the likes of U2 and/or Coldplay; however, with much of the performances coming across flat and dull, this ends up being a record that misses the mark handily. The electronic flourishes that were minimized last time out are back again here and, while keyboards may be par for the course among younger, sprier alt-indie bands, they feel like a forced attempt at relevance here. To be sure, it's no crime to tinker with your sound and explore outside possibilities, but with very few exceptions the experiments on this record fail to prove much benefit to the songs. Also, if you're going to run fifteen tracks deep on an album that clocks in just shy of an hour, you've got to bring more sustained energy than is found on Black and White R

Does anyone (aside of those who've never heard a Danko Jones record) not know what they're in for when a new Danko Jones record comes along? I'm asking because I knew what I was in for, and I don't think I'm that big a rock snob or especially clairvoyant; hard charging riffs, big choruses and the highest amount of references to loud music and hot women this side of AC/DC. The thing is, just like the endeared Aussie rockers, a new batch of Danko Jones tunes is as welcomed as it is predictable. At this stage in the game (this marks the group's eighth record over fifteen years, following a trio of early EPs), this record serves as your biannual reminder of what rock n' roll is at its core: relentlessly energetic blasts of feel-good power chords and gang vocals, free of political affiliations and dramatic societal hypotheses. Sure, this brand of rock may not be exactly in vogue in the current musical climate, but I doubt Danko gives a damn whether what he