Spoon

Spoon

Telephono (Merge)

Spoon

Soft Effects EP (Merge)

This is a Spoon refresher course. Telephono, the then trio's 1996 debut LP on Matador, is a vision of things to come, the wide-open spaces of 2002 breakthrough Kill the Moonlight filled here with static, manic energy. Like they had melded Wire through Pavement's amps, Telephono is an impressive first stab, with new packaging from Merge and a shaggy video for "Not Turning Off." Britt Daniel's nasal sneer is on full display here, shooting into the air with vitriol, and it sounds hungry. There's no mistaking it, Telephono is a breakup album, whether channeled through Daniel's snarling on "Nefarious" ("Now your teeth are all red and there's a little bit about you I don't wanna know") or the paranoid slurs and shouts of the brutal "Claws Tracking" – it draws blood. "The Government Darling" huffs, while "Towner" is a mellow bounce down Slanted and Enchanted roads until Daniel froths the closing lyrics in an ecstatic staccato. This is the drunken call at 4am. The Soft Effects EP, by contrast, feels too short at just 15 minutes but also points the direction of Spoon to come – anthemic, riffy, elegant. Ominous opener "Mountain to Sound" sounds fantastic, fading into "Waiting for the Kid to Come Out." "Get Out the State" descends into beautiful guitar squall, and all five songs point to the pop promise of 2001's Girls Can Tell. Today, you can hear a Spoon song in a Jaguar commercial, but these two discs feel like a dirty secret all your own.

(Both)