Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

''Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Spoon. It was first released on July 10, 2007, through Merge Records and Anti-. It received critical acclaim and appeared on several year-end album lists. 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. By January 2010, the album had sold 318,000 copies in the United States. It was supported by two singles; " The Underdog" and " Don't You Evah".

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."About the Album: Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Britt Daniel"
, eMusic Magazine, July 5, 2007. 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".

The track "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" was a song the band "really struggled with". 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. As the intro continued, Daniel began singing along with the guitar line, which can also be heard on the final mix.

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".

Packaging and release

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.Joe Gross
"In Tune with Spoon"
, Austin360.com, July 5, 2007. 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". Its cover art comes from a portrait of the artist and sculptor Lee Bontecou, taken by the Italian photographer Ugo Mulas in 1963. The completed sculpture on the right is now in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art.

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.

Reception

''Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga'' received critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 84 based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In a review for ''Entertainment Weekly'', Sean Howe complimented the "inventory of sounds" on ''Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga'', calling it "one of those 'taking stock' records that refines and collates everything that came before". ''PopMatters'' Zeth Lundy cited the album as the band's "most groove-oriented effort", thanks in part to the addition of Eric Harvey and Rob Pope to the band's recording line-up, and concluded by writing that "there's plenty on ''Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga'' to suggest that the band harbors its most intimate operational relationships outside the norm." Heather Phares of AllMusic praised its "remarkable blend of focus and creativity" and noted that "even if Spoon's modus operandi seems overly regimented on paper, the results are just as elegant as they are fun." Giving it a "Best New Music" designation, Eric Harvey of ''Pitchfork'' called the album a "wonderfully singular indie rock record".

The album appeared on several year-end and decade-end lists released by music publications. ''cokemachineglow'' rated it the best album of 2007. ''Pitchfork'' ranked it the 7th best album of 2007 and later ranked it the 35th best album of the decade. The album was at #10 on ''Rolling Stones list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007. ''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. ''Treble'' ranked it the 3rd best album of 2007 and the 31st best of the decade. Q and ''Glide'' also ranked it the 66th and 28th best albums of the decade respectively.

Track listing

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.

''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.Paul Thompson
"Spoon Augment ''Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga'' With Bonus EP"
, Pitchfork Media, posted on May 24, 2007 at 3:57 pm

Bonus 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".

Personnel

*Britt Daniel – vocals, guitar
*Jim Eno – drums
*Eric Harvey – piano, keyboards
* Rob Pope – bass
*Jason Freese - sax
*Ron Blake - trumpet
*Francisco Torres - trombone

Notes

*"Don't You Evah" is a cover of the song "Don't You Ever" by The Natural History. The original song can be found on the album ''People That I Meet'' and on Spoon's EP '' Don't You Evah''.
*"Eddie's Ragga" is named after Eddie Robert from the band I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, which also comes from Austin, Texas. Eddie Robert has also written parts of the song.
*"Finer Feelings" uses a sample from the song "Industrial Spy" by the Jamaican reggae artist Mikey Dread. The song was written by Micheal G. Campbell and can be found on Dread's 1979 album ''African Anthem''.
*"Don't You Evah" in part of the soundtrack of Hulu miniseries 11.22.63, episode "The Rabbit Hole".
*"The Underdog" was featured in the 2017 film Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Release history

Charts

''Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga'' debuted at number 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 number 58, selling 11,000—a total of 88,000 copies in 4 weeks.

Album

Singles

The song "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" was ranked number 16 on ''Rolling Stone''s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.No byline (December 11, 2007)
"The 100 Best Songs of 2007"
''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved 2007-12-21

References

Further reading

*

External links

Free webstream of the album in its entirety

{{Authority control

2007 albums
Spoon (band) albums
Anti- (record label) albums
Merge Records albums