Lucifer On The Sofa - Spoon: Review
Spoon
are a Texas rock band who have spent the last 20 years developing a reputation for being one of the most consistent acts in all of music. They have continually delivered refreshing and critically acclaimed rock records throughout their career as a band spawning a strong following. Lucifer On The Sofa follows 2017's Hot Thoughts and a combination greatest hits and B-sides collection in 2019.
Review By Lav:
There's a reason its so cliché to say Spoon is the most consistent band out there. They just continue to deliver time and time again making the exact right kind of subtle shifts to their style and tone. In 2014, well over a decade into their career they released my favorite of all their albums with the excellent They Want My Soul. A few years later they followed it up with a darker take on their usual sound and found acclaim again on Hot Thoughts. While I obviously enjoyed the singles leading up to this album I really didn't even need them to build up hype for the record. It's Spoon, I knew it was going to be good, and it is.
So let's use those singles as a starting point. The Hardest Cut came first and landed on my singles of the year list last year because it has one of the most irresistible grooves I've heard in a long time. The hook manages to be incredibly slick despite just how anguished the singing is and I love how bouncy the guitar riffs are. The whole song just feels like it could spring in any direction on a whim. Wild came next and it's a song I've been enjoying for weeks now with one of the best hooks I've heard so far in 2022. Britt Daniel's raspy singing absolutely makes the track with the building guitar lines that connect the refrains serving as icing on the cake. By the time the piano gets involved we are fully in jam mode and that part of the track totally completes the sale for me.
Both these tracks show up in an excellent first leg of the album highlighted by one highlight after another. Held is the records opener and if that classic sense of rock and roll swagger Spoon is known to bring to a song is what you like about their music, this one should have you hooked right away. Despite some pretty honest and vulnerable lyrics this song is absolutely soaked in thick blues rock riffs and Britt Daniel's cooler than cool vocals. I love the way the guitars start to pile up on top of each other getting thicker and fuzzier it just drives the song to one explosive moment after another. I also quite enjoy The Devil & Mister Jones even though it does seem like its borrowing some of its hook from a song on the most recent Bob Dylan album. They dial back the intensity a bit on this track and deliver a sparkly bar tune with sweet background vocals and a more robust instrumental arrangement. At the center is Britt's titular story which is delivered the with exact level of abstraction and artistic inaccuracy that a good rock song with a story promises.
Later on in the record there's Feels Alright another song I liked immediately that just stuck in my head and got better and better over time. I love the gritty vocals on the hook and while the verses are light on instrumentation they set up perfectly for the piano rock hook. Satellite starts off slow but uses that as a bassline to do some awesome stuff. Every time a new flurry of instrumentation rushes into the track is gets more exciting and Britt's chants of "I know I love you more" get better and better as they go on. Of course on top of it all the song has one of the best guitar solos on the record for a bridge that is both ripping and anthemic. The closing track Lucifer On The Sofa is the records longest song and one that features a prominently dreamy mix of keys and reverb. It is also pretty spacious compositionally and while I could see some people interpreting that as wandering, after all the straight up rock that the album delivers before this I don't mind the space and moment to breathe right at the end.
My Babe was technically a single released just a few days before the album and while it's my least favorite of the bunch I still think it's okay. It's really just a cute little love song that manages to bring slightly more authenticity than you'd expect from a song that sounds like this. Britt manages to conjure up some genuine romanticism occasionally and once again the fuzzy guitars on the back end are a welcome addition. On The Radio is a song that does kind of get lost in the cards a little bit. It has a lot of similar elements to the best tracks here but I don't find it nearly as catchy or instantaneous. Aside from the raw appeal of how much I enjoy Britt's singing I think the song is just okay.
There's really only one song on the record I didn't really care for at all and it's Astral Jacket. This is definitely the most reserved song on the album marked by gentle strummed guitars and some vocal manipulation that admittedly sounds pretty out of place. I'm also not crazy about the singing on the song and while I totally understand the desire to include a track like this on the record I think the execution could have been a lot better.
So another album from the worlds most consistent band and guess what, it's good again. From the great riffs, punchy drums and gritty lead vocals everything about this is a formula for rock success. Where the album really shines is with songwriting, repeatedly setting up hooks that are so much more impactful than just the catchy refrains they're built around. It feels like Spoon could keep doing this until the sun burns out because their level of execution hasn't wavered a bit. 7.5/10
Spoon's album covers always have a graphic edge to them and it translates well in this one, taking away any photo that would be overlaid and replacing it as an illustration. I'm not that impressed with the quality of the drawing and I think it could have been more refined but I do love the way the cover creates movement and impact within a minimal design. The colors are all working together and the placement of branding and subject work harmoniously. There's some dead air on the left side that I wish could have been utilized more but overall this is a dynamic cover. 7.5/10
