In fact, I don't think I've ever really captured in writing what it is about Spoon that I like so much. Their music just seems to possess this attitude that's both fresh and rooted in the origins of rock 'n' roll, an anger that's at once stylish and direct, a compassionate ache that's as oblique as it is palpable. And Girls Can Tell wraps all that is great about Spoon up in a shiny new package. It's been nearly three years since Spoon's last album, A Series of Sneaks , rocked heads and broke hearts, and even though the band was without a label for most of that time, they forged ahead with the writing and recording of Girls Can Tell anyway. They had more than enough time to get the album sounding just right, and it definitely shows in the finished product.
Girls Can Tell is more mature and accomplished, but at the expense of the spark of spontaneity.
Fans of Spoon's mannered sloppiness will most likely be taken aback at their new sound, one which is significantly spookier and cleaner-sounding, with more conventionally structured songs. It may be worth noting that John Croslin, who's produced most of Spoon's output to date and may be responsible for the more off-kilter ideas on previous albums, is barely present on this album. Where A Series of Sneaks was a giddy grab bag of intentional loose ends, Girls Can Tell ties those loose ends up, perhaps a bit too neatly. The irony, of course, is that this album sounds much more like a major-label release than Sneaks. And initially, Girls Can Tell sort of feels like a recap of Spoon's brightest spots within their oeuvre, recast in a new light.