Hot Thoughts is the ninth studio album by American rock band Spoon. It was released on March 17, 2017, through Matador Records. It is also the first Spoon album since 2002's Kill the Moonlight to not feature multi-instrumentalist Eric Harvey, who quietly left the band after finishing a world tour in support of 2014's They Want My Soul.
Reception
Hot Thoughts received acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on 30 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Jillian Mapes of Pitchfork wrote "Spoon stay in their well-earned lane but tweak the formula just enough on their ninth album, keeping their reliably great songwriting and adding new, electronic textures."
Accolades Publication Accolade Rank ABC News Top 50 Albums of 2017 Consequence of Sound Top 50 Albums of 2017 Diffuser.fm Top 25 Albums of 2017 Double J Top 50 Albums of 2017 Flood Magazine Top 25 Albums of 2017 The Ringer Top 10 Albums of 2017 Spectrum Culture Top 20 Albums of 2017 Time Out Top 29 Albums of 2017 Under the Radar Top 100 Albums of 2017
Track listing
Personnel Credits adapted from liner notes for Hot Thoughts
Spoon Britt Daniel – vocals, guitars, keys, piano, percussion, bass Jim Eno – drums, percussion, keys Alex Fischel – keyboards, piano, guitars, percussion Rob Pope – bass, percussion
Production Spoon – production, recording, mixing Dave Fridmann – production, recording, mixing Brad Bell – engineering Matt Gerhard – engineering Mike Fridmann – engineering Max Lorenzen – engineering Grant Eppley – engineering Howie Weinberg – mastering Gentry Studer – mastering Janet Weiss – song sequencing
Additional musicians Sabrina Ellis – vocals (track 8) Sara Houser – vocals (tracks 4, 6 and 8) Stephen Patterson – extra drums (track 5) Blair Robbins – vocals (tracks 4, 6 and 8) Brad Shenfeld – darbuka, saz (track 5) Ted Taforo – saxophone (track 10) Sharon Van Etten – vocals (track 4)
Artwork Christine Messersmith – cover image Alan Hynes – design Britt Daniel – design
Charts Chart (2017) Peak position Japanese Albums Chart 171 New Zealand Heatseekers Albums (RMNZ) 8 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) 100
References