Ga Ga for "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga"

I've been a huge Spoon fan since the first time I heard Girls Can Tell. In fact, to this day, A Series of Sneaks (which I went back and bought immediately after hearing Girls Can Tell) remains my all-time favorite album. It took me a bit longer to fully absorb Kill The Moonlight, but I eventually grew to love it, as well. But even though Gimme Fiction was pretty good, I never was as fully immersed in it as I had been with all previous Spoon albums, so I wasn't sure what to expect from their upcoming release, the bizarrely-titled Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.

Well, before I was even finished with my first complete listen to this new Spoon album, I was more than hooked. The first song to absolutely blow me away from this fantastic record is "Don't You Evah," the fourth track on the album, and the second in an absolutely amazing five-song run of audio perfection from tracks three ("You Got Yr Cherry Bomb") through seven. But it is that seventh track, "The Underdog," which just may be the breakout hit Spoon has flirted with for years (see, "Way We Get By, The") but never quite consummated.

Out of the 10 songs comprising the entirety of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, only "The Ghost of You Lingers" is less than stellar. I might even consider it Spoon's weakest track ever, though that's probably not something I'd like to admit within an otherwise glowing review. Still, credit Britt Daniel for being his typical bold self and releasing this seemingly inaccessible song as the album's advance track. Never one to take the conventional route, Daniel's genius lies in his willingness to take such daring risks. It pays off in spades nine times out of 10 on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, which in all likelihood will end the year as my #1 album of 2007.