Kill the Moonlight
Kill the Moonlight is the fourth album by American rock band Spoon released on August 20, 2002 through Merge Records. The album features a stripped-down, minimal sound that incorporates various different instruments such as tambourines and pianos along with an idiosyncratic production style. The album has gone on to receive critical acclaim with its lead single "The Way We Get By" being used in various television shows, and is regarded as Spoon's "magnum opus". Composition. The album has been noted for its minimal and rhythm-driven sound. Eric Carr of "Pitchfork" described it as "an  adventure in starkness", going on to write: "Like some of the best minimalists in music, Spoon use the null and void to create tension which bolsters and sets apart every nuance of the music-- every handclap, every reverberating crash, every beep from the synthesizer." Heather Phares of "AllMusic" wrote that the group "follow(ed up) such a cathartic album as Girls Can Tell with a collection of tougher, leaner, and meaner songs like "All the Pretty Girls Go to the City," which sounds like the inverse of Girls' "Everything Hits at Once"". Daniel Pike of BBC found the album to be  terribly, terribly British in sound, characterizing it as a "distinctly lo-fi post-punk offering" and noting "an air of tenderness and sincerity about" it. Tom Breihan of "Stereogum" noted elements of "toothy Wire minimalism, mid-period Motown strut, Kinks-y melodic twinkle" in the album's sound, even going on to suggest the influence of Timbaland "since (his music) brought the same sense that empty space was a virtue, that a perfectly-placed sound-effect could be the most memorable part of a song". The opener "Small Stakes" features "Steve Nieve-style keyboards and (a) shoutout to Har Mar  Superstar" with lyrics "alluding to class concerns". "The Way We Get By", the lead single from the album, is "built on a rollicking piano line and handclaps" with lyrics that "had its roots in the (Daniel)’s more recent memories of scraping together enough cash to go to shows, alter his mind and find salvation in Iggy Pop". In an interview with "Pitchfork", Daniel revealed that the song initially started out as "off-the-cuff" before turning into "a glorified, fucked-up-relationship song about a scrappy couple getting high in the backseat, making love with the song ‘Some Weird  Sin,’ seeking out people that don’t speak very much [...]". The aforementioned "BBC" article noted "shades of Tim Burgess falsetto on "Something To Look Forward To" and "Stay Don't Go"". The former has been described by the "Stereogum" article as a "nicely knotty, a too-short spurt of sass" whilst the latter track "sports a human beatbox rhythm" or "just a guy breathing funny", the music on top of it described as being "made up of Depeche Mode type flourishes and Prince meets Bowie vocals" The song "Jonathon Fisk" is based on a bullying middle school classmate of the  songwriter Britt Daniel. According to Daniel, "Fisk" is now a fan of the band, and "came to all of [Spoon's] shows for about two or three years". It has been musically described as being "more punk-ish but still relatively spare, even when a saxophone surfaces". "Paper Tiger" has been singled out by many critics as being the album's best track, "Tiny Mix Tapes" describing it as "a minimalist ditty [...] With orchestral swells, reversed effects, rim clicks, piano chords, and a haunting vocal melody". Doug Wallen of "PopMatters" wrote that the song breathed "sweet new life into classic  love-song fodder -- "I'm not dumb / Just want to hold your hand" and "I will be there with you when you turn out the light"". "Someone Something" features a heavy Elvis Costello influence (of whom Daniel is an "ardent admirer"), "Delusions of Adequacy" describing it as " jump(ing) and hop(ing) along [...] a neat piano and nicely placed drum fills". The following track "Don't Let It Get You Down" too has piano "but also with newfound bluesy twang", the intro described as "part Stones and part Elvis Costello". "All The Pretty Girls Go To The City" has been described as  another fun song highlighted by good piano work that mimics the vocal lines. The "PopMatters" article writes that the song is "haunted by brooding keys and, finally, lush instrumentation, like a Motown 45 transmitted from the wrong side of the tracks. "You Gotta Feel It" has been described as "eternally bluesy" and features "distant backing vocals and baritone saxes". "Back To The Life" features a tambourine and handclaps that "come in at the exact right moments". The song "opens with a demented cackle, then laying on heavy rhythmic sampling and melodic trickery". The closing track "Vittorio E" has been  described as "an undulating, vaguely psychedelic ballad" and an "anti-ballad", the aforementioned "Pitchfork" article describing it as "a 3-minute synopsis of the album's emotional heft". Release. Released on August 20, 2002 through Merge Records, "Kill the Moonlight" had sold roughly 153,000 copies up to December 2009, according to Nielsen Soundscan. Reception. The album received "universal critical acclaim" upon release, with many critics and fans alike later on considering it to be one of Spoon's best albums. Accolades. The album received end-of-year accolades from a variety of publications in both the US and the UK , continuing to receive end-of-decade ones as well after it came to an end. The majority of the latter, as shown below, came from US publications. According to Acclaimed Music, as of August 2018, the album is the 63rd most acclaimed album of the decade and the 643rd most acclaimed album of all time. Use in other media. "The Way We Get By" was used on the television shows "The O.C.", "Shameless" and "Hustle" as well as in the films "Mean Creek", "The Puffy Chair" and "Stranger Than Fiction." It is also played in a 2020 YouTube commercial. "Do n't Let It Get You Down" can be heard in the 2005 comedy "Waiting...". Charts. The album peaked at number 23 on the US Independent album charts.