This album starts off with the title track, “Hot Thoughts”. For the most part, it’s a smooth start, there’s almost a slight disco feel to everything. To be honest though, that’s really not to shocking. If you listened to Spoon’s last album “They Want My Soul”, you should have easily heard the minor pushes the band was making towards a more electronic sound. Everything about this track is straight up funky, from the choppy bass licks to lead singer Britt Daniels’ eclectic performance. I mean obviously, you can still tell it’s Britt singing, but it’s a little weird not hearing him performing with his usual howl. Don't get me wrong, his performance here certainly works within this atmosphere. I actually dig quite a bit about this track, the riffs are undeniably funky and the atmosphere has a great groove to it. My only real issue is that it’s not as exciting or as wild sounding as other Spoon recordings. I always felt like Spoon’s albums more often than not are urgent, which this is far from. It’s still a solid single though, and I love the string arrangements always in the background. Quickly though, things really take a turn for the weird with “WhisperI’lllistentohearit”. Now while I expected this album to be more electronic sounding, this was the last hing I was expecting. “WhisperI’lllistentohearit” is a straight up electronic song practically, so much so that is barely even sounds like Spoon. Britt, while his performance on the first track was different but still solid, on this one here doesn’t even sound like himself. Here, Britt literally sounds like a generic artist that a DJ brought in for catchy hook on an EDM track. The performance here is just soulless all around, with the instrumentals really taking a complete backseat to the keyboards. Thankfully, about halfway through Spoon drop the entire electronic sound in favor for their classic sound, but we had to sit through over two minutes of highly questionable electronic worship. The sad part is that once Spoon get rolling the rest of the track sounds just fins. But I just can’t get over just how bad those first few minutes are. Spoon have been themselves since the 90’s and havent gotten stale yet, I don’t know why they have to bring in this seriously unnecessary new sound. Up next is “Do I Have To Talk You Into It”, which at the very least sounds much more in line with Spoon’s usual material. But I still can’t shake this feeling that Spoon sound a little uninspired. All of their albums have usually been so fiery in delivery, here they just sound like they could be doing other things besides recording music. This track is much more on the skeletal side, which is fine, they’ve worked with this kind of sound in the past. But “Do I Have To Talk You Into It”, literally ends up going nowhere. Half of the time on this track I feel like their doing their best Dr. Dog impression, but like Dr. Dog at their least interesting. Spoon track after track are going for this super sleazy vibe, which to an extent is seriously coming out great, but they’re just putting way too much faith in it. Plus, the outro on this track is beyond unnecessarily long. “First Caress” at the very least, feels like it isn’t wasting a single second of my time. Spoon are back to going in that slight disco direction. Now, if you’re a real old school fan of Spoon’s work, this is going to be a very grim listen. But if you’re open to a slightly new sound from Spoon, in a weird way I don’t absolutely hate this. Spoon can certainly work with a groove, and Britt’s performance here is much more of a standout for me. Here, this new, sleazy and sexy vibe that they’ve been going for comes off actually sexy, while at the same time coming of sounding something like a Spoon song. My only real issue with “First Carress” is how short it is, I would have loved this to go on for another few minutes.
As this album continues on, Spoon continue to have a real issue with keeping consistant, as up next is the gigantic “Pink Up”. Now the intro here has an undeniable funk to it. But to be honest, the vibe here is so synthetic that I can’t really get my head around it. It’s almost got a bizarre tropical vibe to it, hell I almost get a slight “Jam” feel to everything (which may be even more bizarre). The first minute here is completely uneventful, clearly “Pink Up” doesn’t justify it’s ridiculous run time. The steel drum is certainly a really nice touch, but everything else here is absolutely laborious to listen to. Britt’s performance here is lifeless and faceless, and amongst the already uneventful atmosphere holy shit is this ever boring. There are moments of brilliance here, like the drum fills in the background that are constantly teasing may just happen, but nothing really does. “Pink Up” is overall just awful outside of a few cool instrumentals here and there, not even Britt’s bizarre backwards singing towards the end can save this one. “Can I Sit Next to You” on the other hand is actually really promising right off the bat. Here, Spoon take on this funkier sound once again but they’re so much more up front about it. This one almost has sort of a Gorillaz vibe to it strangely enough, but Spoon sound completely comfortable with it. There’s not a “Jam” in sight, there are no 6 minute over welcome songs, “Can I Sit Next to You” is straightforward and shows Spoon at their best. There’s nothing really fancy, and Britt certainly sounds at his most unhinged and wild. It’s still a little watered down, but if this funkier direction is what the future holds for Spoon, this is certainly a good sound for them. “I Ain’t the One” to be honest though, may be my favorite track here. Right off the bat, this one has a much more somber tone to it, but man what a cool sound does this one have. While it’s certainly more somber in tone, it’s not boring in the slightest. Between Britt’s vocals and the keyboards, this is by far the most “human” sounding track and easily the most emotional track here. While this may just sound like Spoon desperately trying to write one of their own songs, you have to admit it’s a pretty damn good one. Britt sounds so human here, and every instrumental is just so detailed no matter how little it is. The only really weird element here are some of the blasting synths towards the end. But to be honest, if that’s going to be the extent of the electronic elements here, it’s certainly manageable. “Tear It Down” once again honestly shows off Spoon trying to be themselves. So much so, this sounds like it could have easily landed on their last album. I love the piano rhythms here, once again Spoon are really benefiting from a slightly more skeletal approach. Not to mention, the whole “wall” imagery” worked into the lyrics here end up leading to some of the sweetest and the most endearing lines here by far. In just about every way, “Tear It Down” really doesn’t fit on the album, not in a bad way though. The other tracks here are constantly coming off as sleazy, while this one is filled with adorable moments. Once again, this shows that when Spoon focus they can really still write a damn good song.
“Shotgun” takes us back the the much more upbeat side of things with the addition of some super funky licks. Britt honestly doesn’t sound too bad either, especially on that chorus which certainly sticks with you. While I still can’t really get around just how bad some of those opening tracks are, Spoon have certainly got their act together. The synth beat here once again is seriously NOT necessary, but overall “Shotgun” isn’t bad at all. I feel like while this isn’t all that bad at this point in the album, this can all be signs that Spoon are seriously heading down a bad path. While the electronic vibes are ok in certain areas, they need to cool it before Spoon releases something that’s even worse. The album shockingly ends with an instrumental, a solid one too. “Us” comes off seriously sexy, or maybe I’m just a real sucker saxophones. In this case, the much more drawn out intro stands up pretty darn well. Everything has a very whimsical feel to it, while also coming off as very atmospheric and mysterious. Things get even cooler here when those drums come in, and while this isn’t an absolutely life changing outro it’s certainly pleasant.
Rating: 7.5/10
Give a Listen To: "Tear It Down", "First Caress", "Can I Sit Next To
You", "I Ain't The One"
Overall Thoughts: You know, I don't think this is overall a bad album. I think it's a very underwhelming album, and one that really didn't need to happen. Spoon towards the release of this teased that they were going for so much more of a funky direction, and they seemed in control of it. Honestly though, more times then not the songs here get messy real quick. Between way to many synthetic instrumentals and other questionable choices, the first half of this album is not a fun ride. Spoon do get their act together in the second half and prove they certainly still have what it takes though.
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