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Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

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Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga is the sixth studio album by Austin, Texas 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 artist/sculptor Lee Bontecou, taken by Italian photographer Ugo Mulas in 1963.[1] The completed sculpture on the right is now in the collection of the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

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.[2] The band changed the name to the song, 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."[2]

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 also 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 previously appeared on the UK edition of the "Sister Jack" single.

The album debuted at number 10 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and number 1 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums, selling 46,000 copies in its first week.[3] This album was #10 on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.[4] The album was also #7 on Pitchfork Media's top 50 Albums of 2007.

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.[5] When it was recorded a year later, the drum part was recorded without toms the first time. Drummer Jim Eno then recorded the toms separately with a drastically different microphone arrangement. This gave the toms a much more reverb-laden sound, as if "in a tunnel".[5]

The track "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" was a song the band "really struggled with".[5] 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 asking "Can you record the talkback?" repeatedly. According to Daniel, this was an ongoing joke between Daniel and Jim Eno as a way of annoying their co-producer Mike McCarthy.[5] While asking this, Daniel was also listening to the track on his headphones. As the intro continued, he began singing along with the guitar line, which can also be heard on the final mix.[5]

The vinyl version features 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".

Track listing

  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" – 3:36
  5. "Rhthm & Soul" – 3:30
  6. "Eddie's Ragga" – 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

Bonus tracks

  2. "Deep Clean" (iTunes release) – 3:45

Bonus disc (Get Nice!)

  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)" (alternate version) – 1:28
  5. "Mean Mad Margaret" – 1:37
  6. "Love Makes You Feel" – 2:38
  7. "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" (alternate version) – 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

Notes about the songs

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. On week 4, it fell to #58, selling 11,000—a total of 88,000 copies in 4 weeks.

Album

Year Chart Position
2007 Billboard 200 10
2007 Billboard Top Independent Albums 1
2007 Australian ARIA Charts 57

Singles

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

References

  1. ^ "Pitchfork.com". Retrieved 2007-07-11.
  2. ^ a b Joe Gross, "In Tune with Spoon", Austin360.com, July 5, 2007.
  3. ^ Katie Hasty, "T.I. Holds Off Pumpkins, Interpol To Remain No. 1", Billboard.com, July 18, 2007.
  4. ^ ROBERT CHRISTGAU, DAVID FRICKE, CHRISTIAN HOARD, ROB SHEFFIELD (December 17, 2007). "The Top 50 Albums of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-20
  5. ^ a b c d e "About the Album: Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Britt Daniel", eMusic Magazine, July 5, 2007.
  6. ^ 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".
  7. ^ "Anti.com". Retrieved 2007-07-11.
  8. ^ "Pitchfork.com". Retrieved 2007-07-11.
  9. ^ "Anti.com". Retrieved 2007-07-11.
  10. ^ No byline (December 11, 2007). "The 100 Best Songs of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-21
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