And now for a band that has been in near-constant rotation since the early 2000s, but has never appeared in full here in the Top 31. The band’s lead singer, Britt Daniel, showed up as part of Divine Fits at #11 in 2012, but this is the first time Spoon has made the cut. They are still in the running for my Top 10 Albums of the Oughts, and excepting a goose-egg of an album in 2010 (Transference, which didn’t even make the Top 31 that year), Spoon has been amazing for the better part of two decades.

I hold the band’s 4th album, 2002’s Kill the Moonlight as my favorite of the bunch, but Girls Can Tell, Gimme Fiction, and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga are all bunched up as a close second-favorite. Given enough time, 2014’s They Want My Soul, the band’s eighth album, could damn well prove to be their best. It is solid from start to finish, and harkens back to their early-2000s heyday. The band has remained fairly static since that time, with Daniel on guitars and lead vocals, Jim Eno on drums, and Eric Harvey on keyboards and guitars. A couple of other guys fill out the current lineup, Rob Pope on bass and Alex Fischel on additional keyboards and guitars. The original lineup formed in Austin back in 1993, and only Daniel and Eno have remained with the band in that time.

If you’re not familiar with Spoon, please crawl out from under that rock you’re currently stuck beneath and educate yourself. They play guitar-heavy indie rock. These are intelligent songs, sometimes noisy, sometimes a little psychedelic, but almost always brilliant. “Knock Knock Knock” is my favorite from the album, and in August I linked to a live performance of the song they did at KEXP that you simply must see to believe. My second favorite, “Do You,” was posted here back in September. “Inside Out,” the video shown above, isn’t the best song on the album, but it’s a damn fine song and gives you an idea just how good this album is.

If you’ve liked Spoon in the past, you will love this album. If you’re not familiar with Spoon, this album is an excellent way to fall in love with the band I’ve loved for a very long time. Either way, buy it now. You won’t regret it.

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4. Are We There by Sharon Van Etten
5. And The War Came by Shakey Graves
6. Nicky Nack by tUnE-yArDs
7. Not Art by Big Scary
8. The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett by Eels
9. Owl John by Owl John
10. LP1 by FKA Twigs
11. Black Hours by Hamilton Leithauser
12. Give the People What They Want by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
13. Lost in the Dream by The War On Drugs
14. Warpaint by Warpaint
15. Heal by Strand of Oaks
16. Stay Gold by First Aid Kit
17. This is All Yours by ∆
18. Brill Bruisers by The New Pornographers
19. Only Run by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
20. Augustines by Augustines
21. El Pintor by Interpol
22. I Never Learn by Lykke Li
23. Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes by Thom Yorke
24. The Voyager by Jenny Lewis
25. Voices by Phantogram
26. Morning Phase by Beck
27. Hungry Ghosts by OK Go
28. Run the Jewels 2 by Run the Jewels
29. Cosmos by Yellow Ostrich
30. Teeth Dreams by The Hold Steady
31. With Light & With Love by Woods

2009-2013 Top 31s