Category: Viral

Ahead of the release of his new album, Blame The Chat, DDG streamed its creation in a week-long stream-a-thon — a first for the industry, surely. During the streaming marathon, he stopped by Uproxx to challenge the host of Sound Check, resulting in Jeremy’s first-ever L (live, no less!).

Today, DDG continued the rollout with the video for “Fine Shyt” featuring BIA. Naturally, the streamer-turned-rapper is on the cutting edge of internet slang, naming the song after Gen Z’s latest nickname for a baddie, brick house, bad mammajamma, etc. (as someone said on Twitter the other day, these kids could use a little more imagination).

The video, shot at a house party, pairs the two rappers as they trade bars back-and-forth. Longtime readers might know this is my favorite type of rap song, as it evokes the spirit of a cypher, with rappers building on each other’s rhyme schemes and energetic performances. So it goes here, with DDG and BIA boasting their way through a pair of pass-the-mic verses that turn what might have been kind of a basic flex rap into an engaging listen.

You can check out the video for “Fine Shyt” above.

Blame The Chat is out now. You can find more info here.

Last year, indie singer-songwriter Nourished By Time released the Catching Chickens EP and paired it with a world tour in which he spent some time opening for Toro Y Moi. At the time, it was said big things were ahead for the Baltimore artist, and it turns out, that was true.

This year, Nourished By Time will follow up with a new album, The Passionate Ones — his first for XL Recordings. Described in a press release as “a twelve-track catharsis, howled from the underbelly of late-stage capitalism,” The Passionate Ones is due on August 22. Accompanying the announcement, Nourished By Time also released the album’s first single, “Max Potential,” alongside a moody music video. Shot at sundown at a rocky beach, the video mirrors the single’s introspective mood, with Nourished By Time’s Marcus Brown wandering the seaside in shirt and tie, caught between the drudgery of a nine-to-five and the uncertainty of his artistic pursuits.

You can check out the “Max Potential” video above.

The Passionate Ones is out on 8/22 via XL Recordings. You can find more info here. See below for the tracklist and touring info.

The Passionate Ones Tracklist

01. “Automatic Love”
02. “Idiot In The Park”
03. “Max Potential”
04. “It’s Time”
05. “Cult Interlude”
06. “9 2 5”
07. “Crazy People”
08. “Jojo” feat. Tony Bontana
09. “BABY BABY”
10. “Tossed Away”
11. “When The War Is Over”
12. “The Passionate Ones”

Nourished By Time 2025 Tour Dates

05/16 – San Diego, CA – Wonderfront Music Festival
05/18 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Block Party
05/31 – Istanbul, TR – Saloon IKSV
06/02 – Paris, FR – Hasard Ludlique
06/04 – Lisbon, PT – ZDB
06/05 – Barcelona, ES – Primavera Sound
06/08 – New York, NY – Governor’s Ball Music Festival
07/31 – Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza
08/10 – San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival
11/01 – Turin, IT – Club to Club

Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm-and-blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B songs that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.

Since the last update of this weekly R&B column, we’ve received plenty of music from the genre’s artists.

Here are the new music releases you need to listen to:

Summer Walker — “Spend It”

Summer Walker’s road to Finally Over It takes another step forward with “Spend It.” Here, Walker prioritizes luxury and material items over love, a sentiment that isn’t surprising from a woman who is finally over it.

Coco Jones — Why Not More? (Extended)

Coco Jones is in the running for R&B album of the year with Why Not More?, and just a few weeks after its release, Jones is back with more. She returns with Why Not More? (Extended) and three additional songs — “Is It Mine” with Lady London, “Control Freak,” and live edition of “Taste” — to boost the project

Mariah The Scientist — “Burning Blue”

Mariah The Scientist is finally kicking off the campaign for her anticipated fourth album, and it begins with the incredible “Burning Blue” single. On it, the Atlanta singer wears her heart on her sleeve as she sings of a partner whose love for her is so strong that it melts her cold heart.

Jorja Smith — “The Way I Love You”

It appears that Jorja Smith also has an album on the way as she returns with the energetic “The Way I Love You.” The house-inspired record is sure to get your blood pumping as a “proper head-skanker,” as Jorja calls it. “It takes me back in time – there’s something nostalgic about it but now at the same time,” she adds about the record in a press release.

Isaiah Falls — LVRS Paradise

Isaiah Falls is the lead for R&B rookie of the year and LVRS Paradise (Side A), the first half of his debut album, is proof of that. Its nine songs showcase his growth from 2024’s Drugs N’ Lullabies with additional contributions from Ambré, Odeal, and Joyce Wrice as well as highlights like “Take A Hit” and “Trick Daddy.”

Jordan Adetunji — “X N The City”

Jordan Adetunji is just a few months removed from his A Jaguar’s Dream project, but that isn’t stopping him from releasing new music. He’s checks back in with “X N The City.” The scintillating single advocates for some fun that maybe Adetunji shouldn’t engage in, but the magnetic feelings at hand say otherwise.

Khamari — “Head In A Jar”

At last, Kharmari is back with new music. The Boston-born, Los Angeles-based singer delivers “Head In A Jar,” a raw and honest conversation about feeling trapped in one’s own thoughts over a lover that got away. “‘Head in a Jar’ is a metaphor for being a part of someone’s life, but from a greater distance than you would like,” Khamari notes about the song.

4Batz — Since Yall Say Ion Drop Enough

4Batz answers to fans’ request for him to drop new music with the double-sided single Since Yall Say Ion Drop Enough. Made up of “Hope U Don’t Mind” and “Me U & Pride,” 4Batz uses the former to share his intimate desires with his partner while the latter aims to clear the room for two lovers to express their love for one another.

Xavier Omär — HunnyMoon Mountain

Xavier Omär’s HunnyMoon Mountain marks his first solo project since his 2020 effort If You Feel, though last year he did team up with ELHAE for their Truth Be Told EP. HunnyMoon Mountain pushes forth his trademark offerings of heartfelt and soulful R&B with help from Divine Lightbody, Samoht, Xenia Manasseh, and Jai’Len Josey across 11 tracks.

Tiana Major9 — “Money”

The hope is that 2025 proves to be a more active year for Tiana Major9 as she kicks off her campaign for the year with “Money.” The song personifies money and a lover who is inconsistent and not here for the long run as a compassionate and considerate companion for Tiana.

Raahiim — “Just Like Me”

Toronto singer Raahiim is back in action with “Just Like Me.’ The moody single finds Raahiim laying his cards out and show his committment to a new lover ad their potential future together. The song arrives ahead of his gig as an opener for Jessie Reyez’s Paid in Memories Tour.

Leven Kali — “Crystal Ball”

I think it’s about time we get a new project from Leven Kali, but for now, I can settle on a new single. “Crystal Ball” captures Leven Kali’s lively vocals over soft production as he sings to a partner and promises to “give everything for you.”

Aqyila — “Soar”

With Falling Into Place still in rotation, Canadian singer Aqyila returns with a new treat in “Soar.” The self-renewal anthem is the final touch on her recently released debut album. “This felt like the perfect gift to fans, and perfect way to present this total project,” she said about the song. “Like the song says – I’m feeling like my intuition never misses, as long as I continue to trust myself.”

You recently came to a close with nearly two dozen kills by Stalker Joe Goldberg. Very entertainingly, Cardi B’s thirst for Penn Badgley’s serial murderer (and she is definitely not alone) continued until the end of the line, but Joe fully got what he deserved. Although he begged for release with his own death, Joe didn’t receive an easy out from Bronte. Instead, he’s missing his luscious locks and sitting alone in a prison cell, only accompanied by delulu letters from “fans” and his own belief that this is all your fault.

Joe’s refusal to take responsibility sounds about right and on brand for him. No ending would have been a more fitting gut punch, given the inward-looking commentary on You that has sourced from the beginning. The final season numbers are also stacking up with Netflix reporting 10.9 million views and 92.4 million hours streamed within two weeks of release. With results like these, it’s only natural to wonder whether You could spawn a full-fledged franchise, and if you have wondered the same, you’re in good company.

Will There Be A You Spin Off Series On Netflix?

A tiny possibility exists. Don’t hold your breath, though.

Although Showtime’s Dexter has seen enormous success in spinning off Michael C. Hall’s serial killer (and will keep going to town with additional spin offs), You viewers will probably not be as lucky.

Sure, possibilities have been suggested, such as ideas for Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) to receive a prequel or for Candace (Ambyr Childers) to receive more texture, yet none of those ideas happened. Still, another idea is making the rounds and was posed to fifth season co-showrunner Michael Foley by TV Insider. That would be a potential time jump for a show about Joe and Love’s son, Henry, who is now living with Kate, and here’s what Foley had to offer:

“I think it’s an interesting concept. I think that part of what makes You so successful is Penn Badgley as Joe. I personally haven’t gone down the road of what it would be like for a show centered around his son because I just think that the part of the DNA of You is so much Penn playing Joe.”

In other words, no Joe, no go? That’s what it sounds like coming from Foley, and unless a prison escape happens (and Penn Badgley is willing to return), that ain’t happening. Foley also detailed another idea that can’t happen for lawsuit-related reasons:

“When we were doing our London season, we were trying to hire a British writer. A writer that we didn’t hire wrote a brilliant script, which was basically that. I’ve read it. This guy’s pilot was the equivalent of the son of Joe and then reconnecting with his father, and it was brilliant, but I almost feel like that’s another reason why I can’t do it because of a little thing called a lawsuit.”

Yup, You fans will simply have to be satisfied with Final Girl Bronte (Madeline Brewer) delivering a satisfying fate to Joe, which brings some sense of justice to those who were targeted by a smoothly-operating predator. Also, both Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) are living their best lives, although come to think of it, I really would not mind a Dr. Nicky (John Stamos) followup episode? Cue more wishful thinking for You fans.

After releasing three albums between 2010 and 2014, Allo Darlin’ is back. Last month, they shared “Tricky Questions,” their first new song in nine years. That was just the start, it turns out: Today (May 7), they’ve announced Bright Nights, their first album in 11 years. They’ve also shared another new song, “My Love Will Bring You Home.”

Singer Elizabeth Morris Innset says of the project:

“It’s an album from the heart, dealing with themes of love, birth and death, which are things we reflect more on than we did when we made our first album. I would hope that the album sounds timeless and joyous, at other times reflective and emotional.”

A press release notes that the seeds of the reunion were planted during the COVID pandemic, when nostalgic band members started having group Zoom calls. It was during those virtual meet-ups that they decided to reform once the pandemic was over, and in early 2023, they did.

Listen to “My Love Will Bring You Home” above. Below, find the Bright Nights cover art and tracklist.

Allo Darlin’s Bright Nights Album Cover Artwork

Allo Darlin’s Bright Nights Tracklist

1. “In The Spring”
2. “Tricky Questions”
3. “My Love Will Bring You Home”
4. “Northern Waters”
5. “You Don’t Think Of Me At All”
6. “Historic Times”
7. “Cologne”
8. “Stars”
9. “Slow Motion”
10. “Bright Nights”

Bright Nights is out 7/11 via Slumberland/Fika. Find more information here.

Turnstile are coming to the big screen.

To coincidence with the release of their new album Never Enough, the explorative hardcore band have announced a 14-song visual album, Turnstile: Never Enough. The film, which is directed by the group’s own Brendan Yates and Pat McCrory, will premiere during New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival between June 4 and 15. Ticketing information will be announced at a later date.

You can watch the trailer for Turnstile: Never Enough above.

“Hardcore music in general can be about grief, sadness, anger, happiness, joy, triumph,” Yates told The New York Times. “It can be all of those things, but I feel like it always presents as something that makes you feel good. The heaviness and the aggression are a healthy way to process some of those feelings that humans naturally have. I think if you don’t have something like that in your life, it might come out in more destructive ways.”

Paramore’s Hayley Williams (who appears on the album) praised Turnstile for “[staying] true to where they’ve come from, never forgot any of that, but aren’t afraid to be ambitious and try different things.”

Never Enough (the album, not the visual album) is out 6/6 via Roadrunner. Find more information here.

The National leader Matt Berninger ventures off for some solo endeavors every now and then, and he’s in one of those periods now: His new album Get Sunk is set for later this month, and ahead of the release, he has shared another new song, “Inland Ocean.” The tune features backing vocals from Ronboy (Julia Laws) and is overall an enveloping slow burn.

Berninger previously said the album follows “a long period of writer’s block and self-disgust” in 2020, adding, “I just got sick of asking myself ‘Why am I like this?’” He also revealed the new project is “not necessarily an autobiographical album,” and a press release said it was inspired by “the flora and fauna of his new home in Connecticut after years living in Los Angeles.”

Listen to “Island Ocean” above. Berninger’s tour also starts soon, so check out the upcoming dates below.

Matt Berninger’s 2025 Tour Dates

05/19 — Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
05/20 — San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
05/21 — Los Angeles, CA @ Palace Theatre
05/23 — Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
05/24 — Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
05/26 — Toronto, ON @ Concert Hall
05/28 — Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
05/29 — Washington, DC @ Lincoln Theatre
05/30 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall
08/23 — Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street
08/25 — Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 Galvanizers
08/26 — Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
08/27 — London, UK @ Troxy
08/28-31 — Nr Tolland Royal, Wiltshire, UK @ End Of The Road Festival
08/31 — Utrecht, Netherlands @ Tivoli Vredenburg
09/01 — Antwerp, Belgium @ Olt Rivierenhof
09/02 — Paris, France @ Elysee Montmartre
09/04 — Berlin, Germany @ Huxleys
09/05 — Copehagen, Denmark @ Vega
09/06 — Oslo, Norway @ Rockefeller Music Hall

Get Sunk is out 5/30 via Book/Concord Records. Find more information here.

The Bumbershoot Arts & Music Festival is returning to the Pacific Northwest for its 52nd year (!) this Labor Day weekend. The 2025 edition, which is held at the Seattle Center on August 30 and 31, is headlined by Weezer, Bright Eyes, Car Seat Headrest, Aurora, Janelle Monáe, and Sylvan Esso.

The lineup also includes Indigo De Souza, Tank And The Bangas, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Scowl, Great Grandpa, Digable Planets playing Blowout Comb, Tennis, The Linda Lindas, and Real Estate.

For two days only, starting May 7, Bumbershoot weekend passes will be available for $199. From there, a weekend pass will cost $225, while single-day tickets go for $125. There’s also the “Crew Pack” option, which includes four Weekend Passes for $800. You can find more information here.

Check out the full lineup below.

Bumbershoot 2025 Lineup For Saturday, August 30

Weezer – Voyage To The Blue Planet
Car Seat Headrest
Bright Eyes
The Budos Band
Indigo De Souza
Tank And The Bangas
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Pattie Gonia (“DJ Set”)
Say She She
Hey, Nothing
Quasi
Scowl
Great Grandpa
Madison McFerrin
Kyle Dion
J.R.C.G.
Tezatalks
Amelia Day & The Cloves
Zookraght
Biblioteka
Coffin Break
Two Minute Hate
Liv Victorino
Foot Ox
Fleetwood Snack

Bumbershoot 2025 Lineup For Sunday, August 31

Aurora
Janelle Monáe
Sylvan Esso
Digable Planets – Blowout Comb 30th Anniversary
Tennis
Saba
The Linda Lindas
Bob The Drag Queen (“DJ Set”)
Real Estate
The Murder City Devils
Frankie And The Witch Fingers
Spellling
Fat Dog
Bebe Stockwell
The Army, The Navy
Petra Haden
Mega Cat
Day Soul Exquisite
Small Paul
Avery Cochrane
The Jaws Of Brooklyn
Vic Daggs II
Weep Wave
Vika & The Velvets
School Of Rock Seattle

In March, Sabrina Claudio shared the single “Need U To Need Me,” signaling the beginning of a new era. In addition, she announced her partnership with distributor EMPIRE, which she called “a blessing in my life.” Now, the “Better Version” singer is prepared to reveal the fruit of that partnership, in the form of her fifth studio album, Fall In Love With Her, due on June 6. She shared the album’s title, release date, and cover art in a post on Instagram, where she’d previously revealed that she had finished the album just two weeks before.

Of her new label deal, she previously said, “I think my uniting with Empire was divine timing. There’s a reason why, after nearly 10 years of being an artist, now was the right time to have come together. They have been a blessing in my life. Their support for the art I’ve created is unlike anything I’ve experienced before, and I am beyond grateful to have partners who only want to enhance and champion my vision.”

The genre-bending singer also released a second single for the album, “Before It’s Too Late,” which you can check out here.

Fall In Love With Her is out 6/6 via EMPIRE. You can find more info here.

This Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of Spoon’s Gimme Fiction, which was celebrated by GQ as “the most important rock record of the past decade.” Not the most important Spoon album or indie album. According to the author, between the years 2005 and 2016, no rock album, period, was more important than Gimme Fiction. I respect the energy, if not the merit, of the argument. First off, like literally every single retroactive look at rock music in the 21st century, the author portrays the genre in a state of crisis against all available contradictory evidence. They also describe My Morning Jacket as “uncritical retro revivalists” in the year they made Z.

Beyond that, Gimme Fiction is the fourth-most important Spoon album of the 2000s and that’s an indisputable fact — Girls Can Tell is the one that rebooted Spoon’s career after a brief and bitter spell on a major label, Kill The Moonlight was their first widely-acknowledged masterpiece, and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga has sold at least twice as many copies as any other album they’ve made.

But I think the most bizarre aspect of the piece is the author’s need to describe Spoon as important, let alone “the most.” Spoon has been hailed as the most consistently excellent American rock band of the 21st century, the type of band for which the Five Albums Test was made. And yet, they endure largely because they’re resistant to hyperbole. Spoon makes instant classics, but nothing showy enough to create the aura of “masterpiece” or “earth-shattering.” They will finish in the top ten of most year end lists, but never No. 1. “Important” albums don’t always age well, Spoon ones always do, even after nearly 30 years. Here’s my take on which ones have aged the best.

10. Telephono (1996)

Telephono served as Spoon’s introduction for a select handful of people — KVRX listeners in Austin, indie record store clerks flipping out over anything Matador released in 1996. Aside from that, Telephono is an album that even relative Day Ones would first hear at least five years after the fact, something whose value largely stems as a comparative point for Spoon’s celebrated 21st century output. Yet, even if Telephono is a curiosity, what’s surprising is how unsurprising it is. Just about everything that made Spoon Spoon is already in place, although they’re perhaps still a bit too in thrall to their Wire and Pixies records: The co-ed harmonies and Daniel’s occasional lapse into Frank Black vocal tics are a rare glimpse into Spoon having a firm command on their songwriting basics while still trying to figure out who they wanted to be.

9. Lucifer On The Sofa (2022)

We love a “their best since Achtung Baby!” joke around these parts, but for those who aren’t as familiar with hoary music critic tropes, allow me to explain. Think about a legacy band that, for a time, veered into more experimental territory that was initially well-received but saw them slip either commercially or critically, or possibly both. In that event, there’s an album that stands as the “form” in “return to form.” Achtung Baby is the most obvious example, with Automatic For The People a close second, and the punchline is that U2 and R.E.M. were constantly making “their best since!” albums, each of which were conveniently thrown under the bus whenever the next “their best since!” album came out two or three years later.

The idea of Spoon making a “return to form” is funny to consider since the one thing they’ve been known for above all else is their consistency. And yet, here we have Lucifer On The Sofa — according to Rolling Stone (the primary source of “best since!” gags), “a consistently excellent band takes it to a new level by getting back to basics.” They also say, “Spoon are the most reliable great American rock band of the past 25 years. That might say more about American rock than it does about Spoon,” which is definitely the most backhanded compliment I’ve ever seen from a 4.5-star review in that publication.

So what exactly did it mean for Spoon to get back to basics? Was it covering their Austinite indie brethren on the opening “Held”? Because Dave Fridmann is still in the credits, and so is Mark Rankin and Justin Raisen, which put Spoon one degree of separation from Queens Of The Stone Age and Charli XCX. This is a loud album but a professional one, far removed from their prickly, post-punk origins, and the highlight is the first ever arena rock Spoon song; That’s the one co-written by Jack Antonoff. Otherwise, Lucifer On The Sofa does indeed achieve a baseline “yup, sounds like Spoon” quality that’s a bit deflating in light of the restlessness that typified Kill The Moonlight or Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga or whatever “form” Spoon was supposed to return to here. In fact, Lucifer On The Sofa is without precedent in the catalog, the first time Spoon simply “made a Spoon album.”

8. Transference (2010)

A perfect Contrarian’s Choice — follows an artist’s most popular and critically acclaimed album, is more “raw” and “difficult,” and endured an unusually muted reception upon its release, one where the 8s become 7s and the four-star reviews slip to 3.5. This was pretty much the point of Transference, which countered the precise, pop perfection of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga with a record that’s literally half demos. Britt Daniel himself has referred to the self-produced Transference as “uglier” than Spoon’s past records, though that wasn’t the initial intention: they ended up scrapping earlier sessions with Mark fucking Ronson.

Still, after an album with so many definitive statements, Transference settled into uncertainty and communication breakdowns: witness the confusion inherent in song titles like “Is Love Forever?,” “Written In Reverse” and “Who Makes Your Money.” Transference has the best lore of any Spoon album, one with a truly divisive reception and also the highest debut on Billboard (No. 4! Indie rock in 2010!).

I imagine its placement on any Spoon album ranking list is the one that says the most about the person who made it. And it’s just one man’s opinion that Transference remains fascinating for never truly revealing all of its secrets by design, but also ranks this low because that inability to truly know Transference is tied up in Spoon making their first album of the decade that wasn’t exclusively memorable songs.

7. They Want My Soul (2014)

You’d figure Spoon could completely dictate the terms of engagement on their return to the majors, but there’s a paranoia and internal conflict coursing throughout They Want My Soul exemplified not just by its album title, but this bar from “Outlier” — “I remember when you walked out of Garden State / ’cause you had taste.” The first part of that line is directed at a long-lost friend, but the latter opinion is presumably Daniel’s own, which casts a lot of the artistic choices in a curious light.

Co-producers Dave Fridmann and Joe Chicarreli make for a maximalist-on-maximalist tag team, each with a sonic signature completely at odds with that of Spoon (also, Chicarreli worked on both The Shins and The White Stripes records in 2007, maybe Daniel changed his tune since “Small Stakes”?). Are they here because Spoon wanted a challenge or because they were still subject to major label meddling 16 years after A Series Of Sneaks? Did “The Rent I Pay” and “Do You” sound comfortable between Foster The People and Bombay Bicycle Club songs on SiriusXM because Spoon was catering to mid-10s mainstream trends, or the other way around? What does it say about Spoon’s “triumphant return to form” that synth-heavy highlights “Inside Out” and “New York Kiss” sound a lot like Daniel’s recent work in Divine Fits? What are we to make of Spoon’s second stint on a major label also lasting only one album? While the occasional ill-fitting slickness of They Want My Soul can’t help but make it a lesser Spoon album, it’s still one of the most fun to think about.

6. Hot Thoughts (2017)

Hot Thoughts arrived two-and-a-half years after its predecessor, but on Spoon Time, that makes it a virtual Amnesiac, Two Hands, or Weird Era Cont. — a relative “quickie” companion piece to its more celebrated big brother. Indeed, They Want My Soul and Hot Thoughts feel like mirror images, with Dave Fridmann trying to fit himself into the Spoon sound on the former, and Spoon trying to make a Dave Fridmann album on the latter. As a result, Hot Thoughts is the weirder, wilder, more truly experimental of the two.

The title track and “Can I Sit Next to You” are such literal come-ons that they’re basically Afghan Whigs songs, “Us” and “Pink Up” veer off into dubby, digital bubble baths, and the beat change on “Whisperandi’lllistentohearit” is one of the most exciting moments of the band’s third decade (has any band made more consistently effective use of a tambourine?). Its cooler reception make it feel more fresh a decade later, and yet, much like They Want My Soul, Hot Thoughts ends up being a little less than the sum of its intriguing parts; the “classic” Spoon songs like “Shotgun” don’t ground Hot Thoughts so much as confirm that they didn’t go far enough into the unknown.

5. A Series Of Sneaks (1998)

Let’s consider the alternate reality that so many Spoon fans wanted for A Series Of Sneaks in 1998 — “Car Radio” or “Metal Detektor” become college radio hits with an occasional spin on MTV or a late-night appearance where Conan O’Brien holds up the CD and mentions how many year-end critic’s lists it made. A Series Of Sneaks does reasonable numbers and Spoon has a solid career path similar to bands who similarly were “indie” in spirit while cashing major label advances in the 1990s, like Built To Spill or Dinosaur Jr., or hell, maybe even Modest Mouse if things broke right.

Catchy as it was, Spoon’s brand of jittery, cryptic power-pop couldn’t have been more at odds with what was actually on the radio in 1998, whether it was alt-rock or college rock; Daniel himself said that A Series Of Sneaks was him trying to gain distance from the electric guitar, which was “too used, too simple, too alt-rock.” In retrospect, A Series Of Sneaks tanking is the best thing to happen to Spoon — it didn’t just serve as the inspiration for the cathartic Girls Can Tell (plus the Ron Lafitte-related songs attached to Series’ 2002 Merge reissue), but gave Spoon the high ground that made celebration of their ensuing output feel like a moral imperative. There’s a risk of A Series Of Sneaks being reduced to a plot point on their hero’s journey, but as a piece of music, at least give some credit to Elektra for thinking something this stubbornly idiosyncratic could sell at all.

4. Gimme Fiction (2005)

Most artists worthy of lists like these eventually make their “sprawling,” “adventurous” album — the one that’s at least 15 minutes longer than the others, with a couple of dud experiments that are beloved nonetheless for its willingness to defy expectations. Gimme Fiction is that album for Spoon, almost by default — though just shy of 44 minutes, it’s the longest LP in the catalog and the relative frills of Gimme Fiction make it feel like Sign O’ The Times compared to the minimalist masterpieces that came before.

Daniel’s handsome rasp and Spoon’s peerless quality control ensure they never sound uncomfortable as they subtly reinvent themselves on a track-by-track basis: the seasick shanty of “The Beast And Dragon, Adored” somehow doesn’t feel at odds with the icy-hot disco strut of “I Turn My Camera On,” nor do the streamlined synth workouts (“Was It You?,” “The Never Got You”) make for a jarring transition to the shifty piano-pop of closer “Merchants of Soul.” There’s enough space in between for alt-country beer blasts (“Sister Jack”), fanciful folk-pop (“I Summon You”), and, in perhaps, the biggest divergence from Spoon’s wheelhouse, a song that’s just one long verse (“My Mathematical Mind”). It’s often perceived as the overlooked middle child between the Spoon albums that made 2000s Best Of Decade lists, but I’ll give Gimme Fiction this: I distinctly remember hearing a leaked version where the tracklist ran backwards and it was every bit as good.

3. Girls Can Tell (2001)

The year is 2001 and a bunch of major-label washouts bet on themselves, channeling all of their frustration and self-loathing into a disgustingly catchy album on a new label that vaults them into a rarefied echelon of popularity and acclaim they occupy to this very day. Yes, this is a Spoon list, so you can see where I’m going with this, but I am also talking about Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American… and I could not imagine Britt Daniel at the turn of the century looking in the mirror, begging not to write himself off yet.

Though Girls Can Tell is the opening argument for Spoon as the most consistently excellent band of the 21st century, it’s a complete outlier in their catalog for having such a transparent emotional tenor — that being, Britt Daniel is down bad. “Tough break handjob sent me back home to ma / Back to Cowtown and the fish shop and the mall,” he barks on “Take a Walk,” and home is where the self-hatred is. Throughout Girls Can Tell, Daniel tries to put a brave face during the day before hitting the same tired bar scene and coming home to count his losses — remembering every girl who gave him the boot and every girl who won’t give him the time of day, every shitty job in shitty business-casual shirts that makes him wonder how he can feel so washed up at such a tender age.

Of course, Girls Can Tell sounds like triumph now because Daniel expressed all of these things in taut and timeless pop songs too good to be ignored — but on those days where everything hits at once, Girls Can Tell is still an indispensable drinking buddy, a reminder of the hope that comes from hitting rock bottom and realizing there’s nowhere to go but up.

2. Kill The Moonlight (2002)

I want to talk about a high school friend of mine named Matt. Up until senior year, he was generally a well-liked guy, but not what you’d describe as one of the “popular kids,” someone who participated in multiple varsity sports but wasn’t really a star and got good grades without distinguishing himself academically either. And then, for reasons that none of us ever really hashed out, one of the cheerleaders took an interest in him and, just like that, he was that dude until graduation. I googled his name for the first time in maybe 20 years and it looks like he’s a senior director of business development at a San Francisco tech firm.

Point being is that sometimes, all it takes is just an external boost of confidence for someone to become that dude, and this is the story of Spoon after they made a record about the most miserable time in their lives and ended up with a certified indie rock classic. In the span of one year, Spoon transformed from a ’90s indie-rock relic to something sleek and sexy enough to compete in the New Rock Revolution, rather than serving as counterpoint to bands like The Strokes and Interpol.

Daniel cast off the small stakes of 30-something heartbreak to pontificate on the meaning of life (“The Way We Get By”), while “Something To Look Forward To” and “All The Pretty Girls Go To The City” made Spoon a band you pre-game to before a night on the town, not the band you listen to after you strike out. And they did it all without sacrificing any of their contrarian impulses; Kill The Moonlight is one of the most unique-sounding indie rock records of its era, defiantly minimal in a way that can be disorienting (see: the severe stereo panning on “Don’t Let It Get You Down,” “Back To The Life”‘s dubbed-out take on Led Zeppelin’s “Boogie With Stu”), blood-pumping (the rawk outlier “Jonathan Fisk”), and downright eerie (“Paper Tiger”), stripping indie rock down to nothing more than literal rhythm and soul.

1. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007)

If it isn’t the best Spoon song, “The Underdog” sure feels like the definitive one. At once sprightly and surly, Britt Daniel honors his obvious lineage of respected, late-’70s “Angry Young Men,” but also the less cred-conscious piano man who actually wrote a song called “Angry Young Man.” And of course, there’s the key lyric on the chorus: “You got no fear of the underdog / that’s why you will not survive.” “The Underdog” lends itself to a pat interpretation of Spoon getting the last laugh on Elektra and disgraced A&R Ron Lafitte, but in 2007, it could be taken as a triumphant statement for indie rock as a whole; bands of Spoon’s ilk still weren’t doing platinum numbers, but indie rock was in the midst of an explosion where seemingly all of the people with cachet were discussing the latest moves of Arcade Fire and Panda Bear and getting granular about pop stars was seen as the pastime of true weirdos.

Similarly, if Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga isn’t the best Spoon album, it sure feels like the definitive one. Coming at the exact midpoint of their discography, it was the first time Spoon acted the part of an A-list rock band, and not just an indie rock band punching above their weight class; the intention of writing “This Record Is A Hit” in the liner notes may have been sarcastic, but it wasn’t wrong. “The Underdog” started popping up in places where you’d never expect to hear a song from a band on Merge and Spoon earned their first top-10 debut on Billboard. From all available data, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga had sold over 300,000 copies by 2010 and it’s probably approaching gold at this point.

And yet, there’s barely anything notably different about Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga than what came before. Only this time around, all of the experimentation of albums past sound like R&D for their version of Thriller or Hysteria, an intentional singles machine that doesn’t mask its painstaking studio craft. “Don’t Make Me A Target” was the meanest Spoon opener to date and also had the stickiest hook. Whereas use of treated piano or exotic instrumentation were the mark of outliers in the past, “The Ghost Of You Lingers” and “My Little Japanese Cigarette Case” hang tough with the more obvious singles like “The Underdog” and “Don’t You Evah.” “Black Like Me,” questionable title aside, is a rare outpouring of pure warmth from a typically obtuse lyricist, the type of closer that confirms whatever impulse you had to call “instant classic” from first listen.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of little moments that can be appraised like facets through a jeweler’s loupe, but a diamond is meant to impress casual viewers at a distance, too. Though I was secretly hoping I’d be able to justify a less chalky No. 1 pick, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is the definitive Spoon album because it’s also the best.