Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Studio album by Spoon
Released 7 July 2007[1]
Genre Indie rock
Art rock
Length 36:26
Label Merge (USA)
ANTI- (Europe)
Spunk![1] (Australia)
Fiveman Army[2] (Japan)
Producer Mike McCarthy, Jon Brion,[3] Britt Daniel, Jim Eno, Spoon
Spoon chronology

Gimme Fiction
(2005)		 Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
(2007)		 Don't You Evah
(2008)
Singles from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
  1. "The Underdog"
    Released: July 10, 2007

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is the sixth studio album by American indie rock band Spoon. It was released on Merge Records on July 10, 2007 to considerable critical acclaim. Its cover art comes from a portrait of the artist and sculptor Lee Bontecou, taken by the Italian photographer Ugo Mulas in 1963.[4] The completed sculpture on the right is now in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art.

The album's title is the former title for the song "The Ghost of You Lingers", which was meant to sound like the song's staccato piano part.[5] The band changed the song's title, but decided to adopt the name "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" as the album title, with Britt Daniel calling it a "great little Dadaist term".[5]

An iTunes-exclusive bonus track, "Deep Clean", was packaged with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. A limited edition copy of the album was released along with a bonus disc entitled Get Nice! The disc includes 23 minutes of mostly instrumental songs and a few demo tracks. Early buyers of the album also received a free 7" containing a demo of "The Underdog", and the B-side "It Took a Rumor to Make Me Wonder, Now I'm Convinced I'm Going Under", which had previously appeared on the UK edition of the "Sister Jack" single.

The album debuted at number 10 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and at number 1 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums, selling 46,000 copies in its first week.[6] By January 2010, the album had sold 318,000 copies in the United States.[7]

Production

"Don't Make Me a Target" was originally written by Daniel while Spoon was producing its previous album, Gimme Fiction. The band practiced it "quite a bit" before the release of Gimme Fiction, but ended up shelving it for a year after unsuccessful attempts to work out an arrangement they liked.[8] When it was recorded a year later, the drum part was recorded without tom-toms the first time. Drummer Jim Eno then recorded the tom-toms separately with a drastically different microphone arrangement. This gave them a much more reverb-laden sound, as if "in a tunnel".[8]

The track "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" was a song the band "really struggled with".[8] This led them to record it three different ways, including a "space rock" version found on the bonus disc and heard distantly at the end of the album arrangement.

At the beginning of "Don't You Evah", Daniel can be heard repeatedly asking "Jim, can you record the talkback?". According to Daniel, he was asking Jim Eno to record the talkback microphone that was being manned by producer Mike McCarthy to a separate track. McCarthy would make comments to Daniel over the talkback microphone at the studio desk as Daniel was singing, and Daniel and Eno considered McCarthy's comments to be ridiculous.[8] As the intro continued, Daniel began singing along with the guitar line, which can also be heard on the final mix.[8]

The vinyl version has no run-out groove on side two. Instead, it ends on a continuous loop of music that appears after the end of the song "Black Like Me".

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source Rating
Metacritic 84/100[9]
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 2007
The A.V. Club B+ 2007
Drowned In Sound (9/10) 2007
Entertainment Weekly A− 2007
musicOMH 2007
Pitchfork Media (8.5/10)
PopMatters (9/10) 2007
Prefix Mag (8/10) link
Q September 2007 (p. 96)
Rolling Stone 2007
Stylus Magazine B+ 2007
Tiny Mix Tapes 2007
Village Voice (favorable) 2007

The album received critical acclaim upon release, receiving a Metacritic score of 84 based on 33 reviews indicating 'Universal Acclaim'.[9] Pitchfork Media called it a "wonderfully singular indie rock record", giving it a 'Best New Album' designation.[10] PopMatters, in its review of the album, hailed Spoon as "perhaps the greatest American band of the 00's".[11] All Music Guide called the album "concise and lively".[12] Drowned In Sound called it "tightly controlled, good old-fashioned rock music".[13] Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A-, calling it "one of those "taking stock"" records that "refines and collates everything that came before" it.[14]

The album appeared on several year-end and decade-end lists released by music publications. cokemachineglow rated it the best album of 2007.[15] Pitchfork Media ranked it the 7th best album of 2007[16] and later ranked it the 35th best album of the decade.[17] The album was at #10 on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.[18] Delusions of Adequacy rated it the 2nd best album of 2007 and the 43rd best of the decade. Tiny Mix Tapes ranked it the 9th best of the year.[19] Treble ranked it the 3rd best album of 2007[20] and the 31st best of the decade.[21] Q and Glide also ranked it the 66th and 28th best albums of the decade respectively.

Track listing

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

All songs produced by Britt Daniel, Jim Eno and Mike McCarthy, and engineered by Jim Eno and Mike McCarthy, except "The Underdog", produced by Jon Brion and Spoon, and engineered by Greg Koller.

All songs written and composed by Britt Daniel, except where noted. 

No. Title Length
1. "Don't Make Me a Target"   3:55
2. "The Ghost of You Lingers"   3:34
3. "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb"   3:08
4. "Don't You Evah" (written by Julian Tepper, Max Tepper, Derek Vockings) 3:36
5. "Rhthm & Soul"   3:30
6. "Eddie's Ragga" (written by Britt Daniel, Jim Eno, Eric Harvey, Eddie Robert) 3:39
7. "The Underdog"   3:42
8. "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case"   3:03
9. "Finer Feelings"   4:54
10. "Black Like Me"   3:25
Total length:
 36:26

Get Nice!

The first pressing of the Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga CD release included the bonus EP Get Nice!, which contains alternative versions of "I Summon You" (from the previous album Gimme Fiction) and "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb". It also includes many previously unreleased instrumental tracks.[22]

No. Title Length
1. "I Got Mine"   2:34
2. "Be Still My Servant"   1:24
3. "Leave Your Effects Where They're Easily Seen"   0:56
4. "I Summon You (Cool)"   1:28
5. "Mean Mad Margaret"   1:37
6. "Love Makes You Feel"   2:38
7. "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb (Garage Reverb)"   3:13
8. "Tasty Fish"   1:18
9. "Dracula's Cigarette"   1:24
10. "1975"   1:39
11. "I Can Feel It Fade Like an AM Single"   3:12
12. "Curfew Tolls"   1:33
Total length:
 23:03

Personnel

"The Underdog" (demo) 7-inch single

Pre-orders for the vinyl release of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga included a 7" vinyl single with a demo version of "The Underdog". The B-side of the single is "It Took A Rumor To Make Me Wonder, Now I'm Convinced I'm Going Under" a song which has been previously released under the name "It Took A Rumor To Make Me Wonder Now I'm Afraid I'm Going Under" on the UK release of "Sister Jack".

No. Title Length
1. "The Underdog (demo)"   3:12
2. "It Took A Rumor To Make Me Wonder, Now I'm Convinced I'm Going Under" (from the "Sister Jack" UK release) 4:47
Total length:
 7:59

Notes

Release history

Country Date
Australia 7 July 2007[1]
United States 10 July 2007
Japan 5 December 2007[2]

Charts

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200 at 46,000 copies sold. In week 2, it fell to #35 with 19,000, then #55 with 12,000 on August 1, 2007. In week 4, it fell to #58, selling 11,000—a total of 88,000 copies in 4 weeks.

Album

Chart (2007) Position
Billboard 200 10
Billboard Top Independent Albums 1
Australian Albums Chart 57

Singles

Year Song Chart Position
2007 "The Underdog" Modern Rock Tracks 26
2008 "Don't You Evah" 33

The song "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" was ranked #16 on Rolling Stone‍ '​s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.[25]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Spunk! Records - Artists: Spoon, Spoon's Artist Page on the Website of Australian record label Spunk!
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fiveman Army Release, Release list of the Japanese record label "Fiveman Army".
  3. ↑ Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, ANTI-Records Label Page.
  4. ↑ "Pitchfork.com". Retrieved 2007-07-11.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Joe Gross, "In Tune with Spoon", Austin360.com, July 5, 2007.
  6. ↑ Katie Hasty, "T.I. Holds Off Pumpkins, Interpol To Remain No. 1", Billboard.com, July 18, 2007.
  7. ↑ "Spoon Kicking Off 'Transference' Tour at SXSW". Billboard. 2010-01-12. Retrieved 2010-01-26.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 "About the Album: Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Britt Daniel", eMusic Magazine, July 5, 2007.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More - Metacritic". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
  10. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10390-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ 2007 http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/42902/spoon-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga/ 2007. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000746410
  13. ↑ 2007 http://www.drownedinsound.com/release/view/10611 2007. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ↑ 2007 http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20044819,00.html 2007. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ↑ http://cokemachineglow.com/category/top-50-albums-2007/?pg=5. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/6753-top-50-albums-of-2007/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7709-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-50-21/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. ↑ Robert Christgau, David Fricke, Christian Hoard, Rob Sheffield (December 17, 2007)
  19. ↑ http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/2007-tiny-mix-tapes-favorite-albums-2007. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  20. ↑ http://www.treblezine.com/top-50-albums-of-2007/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  21. ↑ http://www.treblezine.com/the-best-albums-of-the-00s/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  22. ↑ Paul Thompson, "Spoon Augment Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga With Bonus EP", Pitchfork Media, posted on May 24, 2007 at 3:57pm
  23. ↑ On February 25, 2005, The Natural History performed "Don't You Ever" at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey. The concert can be found here at eMusic; Please note that eMusic has mislabeled "Don't You Ever" as "Princeton Junction".
  24. ↑ "Anti.com". Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-07-11.
  25. ↑ No byline (December 11, 2007). "The 100 Best Songs of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-21

External links