What’s the sign of a good – scratch that – goddamn great album?

Awards?

Sales?

Nah. It’s when a mention of it somewhere; a magazine, a blog post, a billboard, makes the title track come barrelling into your mind like an over-friendly Great Dane¹, knocking you over, licking your face and wanting a quite unreasonable amount of attention. Possibly a touch of frottage. Got that today, I did, with Spoon’s They Want My Soul.

This, my friends, is what a great album sounds like. It’s gonna have some competition come the End Of Year lists, but my betting is firmly on it topping quite a few. Especially for the guitar solo, and the line “Educated folk singers want my soul” in They Want My Soul:

Immense.

Buy it here.

¹ Not Nicklas Bendtner, clearly.