Spoon: Kill the Moonlight (20th Ann. Ed. opaque white) LP

2002's Kill the Moonlight finds Britt Daniel and long time musical conspirator Jim Eno destroying the form book and branching into uncharted territory. It is a staggering achievement, with stylistic range and emotional depth far beyond that of prior Spoon works. Far less linear than Girls Can Tell (2001), Kill the Moonlight is as sonically advanced as it is lyrically daring; no longer rooted to a strict guitar-bass-drum format, Spoon's increased use of keyboards, self-created samples and implementation of studio effects is in stark contrast to the more traditionalist Girls Can Tell. That said, there is no killer gimmick at play, the weapon wielded most often is Daniel's brain. There are no precedents for Britt's channeling of Alan Vega on the claustrophobic opener "Small Stakes," much as the falsetto vocal with minimalist backing of "Stay Don't Go" sounds like nothing else in the band's oeuvre. But if there is a common thread running through each of Spoon's albums, it is in the way their songs are instantly memorable and impossible to shake. Cuts like "Jonathan Fisk," "Someone, Something" and "The Way We Get By" certainly fit that bill here. First ever colored vinyl pressing issued as part of Matador's catalog series Revisionist History.