Kill the Moonlight
Life has gotten so much easier for these guys ever sincePavementbroke up. After all, how many flannel-shirt wearing, floppy-haired,Fallsound-alikes can the average person swallow? Oh well, now that the playing field is theirs alone, Spoon do not disappoint.Kill The Moonlightis 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