The Black Spoons - My Dear Radium

In the iPod era, the concept of seeing the album as an art form seems to have been greatly compromised. Caring about the total quality of a record has given way, for many artists and consumers alike, to finding one or two quality tracks and discarding the filler. In light of this new paradigm, the fact The Black Spoons have made an album that is consistently good from start to finish should alone be enough for them to make an impression on a rock scene greatly in need of being impressed. There are no gimmicks here. The NYC trio of Tom Sean (vocals/guitar), Ruben Mercado (drums) and David Horton (bass) has, with their debut album, delivered a collection of unassuming but exquisitely melodic rock. Sean is a technically proficient guitar player who knows how to showcase his craft without resorting to showing off. Meanwhile, Horton and Mercado combine to create some of the tightest rock grooves this side of Franz Ferdinand without overpowering the album’s greatest asset: the lyrics. With a lead singer who, according to the band’s bio, is “dangerously close to a PhD. in Chinese History,” one might expect an album full of academic bravado and hazy non-sequiturs. Instead, Sean’s tales of sex, science and solitude are related with a subtlety that compliments his intelligence rather than betrays it. He is at his best when being reflective and his words shine brightest on “Never Ever” when he makes a list of things he did not do while with his former lover (among other things they include forgetting to eat, touching himself and contemplating suicide) and remembers the effect she had on his psyche. “Holy shit, she loves me/maybe I should love me, too,” he muses. Knowing this is The Black Spoons’ first record and that it was released just a year after the band’s inception should serve to put a scare into their indie rock contemporaries. The Black Spoons may not single-handedly usher in a new era where the album is once again king, but hopefully their understated excellence will cause enough of a stir to get things going in the right direction. [www.theblackspoons.com]