Spoon always sounds as if something is getting ready to push it over the edge, but it never quite gets there. Instead it just creeps closer. And closer. And closer. Records don't come much more tension-filled than Kill the Moonlight, on which the measured agitation of Britt Daniel's delivery contrasts with mannered songs, giving the impression that the trio is just a hair-trigger away from abandoning the stark politeness of its minimal orchestration. Even when the drums kick in on the piano-based "The Way We Get By," it's not remotely close to the payoff the insistent chords imply is impending, making the mood all the more unsettling. Kill the Moonlight follows up last year's triumphant Girls Can Tell, Spoon's first full-length since being dumped by Elektra in 1998. Long story short: Promising band releases a great record on a major label, album bombs, band's A&R man deserts the band, band gets dropped from label's roster, comes back on an indie (Merge) with one of the finest records of the year. For more details on the getting-dropped part, see the songs from the Agony of Laffitte single (so named for Spoon's former A&R man, Ron Laffitte), which are available as bonus tracks on Merge's recent rerelease of Spoon's sole major label record, A Series of Sneaks.
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