3. Girls Can Tell (2001)

The modern Spoon sound begins with Girls Can Tell, the album on which the piano, a prominent fixture of Spoon releases henceforth, enters the picture. Fraught with the same hopped-up tension as the previous two LPs but unapologetically embracing classic rock affectations previously only hinted at, Girls Can Tell marks the efflorescence of a classic band. Reviews of previous Spoon albums always seemed to overstate the Wire influence, as if Wire had only made Pink Flag, but Girls Can Tell is more reminiscent of the vastly superior Chairs Missing, an equally intrepid, sonically rich album overflowing with ideas. On Girls Can Tell, Spoon nods to Thin Lizzy (“Anything You Want”) and reggae (“Lines In The Suit”), while “Me and The Bean,” a cover of a song by obscure Austin band The Sidehackers (whose John Clayton plays bass on the album), sounds like Nirvana covering The Attractions. Though this is the first Spoon album to feature lyrical themes dealing with actual human emotions beyond detached bemusement and aimless rage, mundane concerns are still the order of the day: “The Fitted Shirt,” for example, doesn’t really expound beyond its title. Which is just as well, because Spoon is really only in love with the margins and possibilities of sound — it’s not for nothing the band is named after a Can song. Structurally taut but sonically elastic, Girls Can Tell is the first great Spoon LP.