Spoon

Hot Thoughts

Texans’ ninth album keeps a steady heat under their enduring career.

Since emerging in 1993, Spoon have developed a reputation as the safest pair of indie-rock hands out there, well-regarded producers of beautifully structured songs elevated by judicious texturing and lyrical guile. The Dave Fridmann produced Hot Thoughts, the first Spoon album not to feature acoustic guitars, does nothing to wreck that smart image, the title track kicking off proceedings like a chess club version of Blue Öyster Cult. Us opens with mellow prog drift; Do I Have To Talk You Into It? is Squeeze in lumberjack shirts while the fierce Shotgun is a hopefully metaphorical description of an increasingly antagonistic relationship. Despite its tangents and twists, however, Hot Thoughts can feel like a record with the safety catches on, emotionally Scotchgarded, squeamish about genuinely messy sensation. The main feeling it provokes is sincere admiration at a job well done, but a raised pulse, unfortunately, is something Spoon can’t craft from scratch. Victoria Segal