Hot Thoughts
Spoon
(Matador Records)
Three stars
Spoon has released its ninth album – one with a cruder and more experimental approach. Helmed by producer Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips), Hot Thoughts is raw, sinewy and often danceable.
The album is packed with solid grooves and an economy of arrangements.
The sounds lean heavily on dance vibes of the 1970s and Alex Fischel's wide array of keyboards. Do I Have to Talk You Into It features a dryly reverberating, John Bonham-like snare, played by Jim Eno, as the distortion on fellow founding member Britt Daniel's voice underlines the exasperation of "feeling cut off from everyone".
I Ain't the One features a Prince drum sound and bursts with vocal harmonies that accentuate the loneliness of a failed contender. Rob Pope's bass propels Shotgun, which sounds like a harsher twin of Kiss' I Was Made for Loving You, a bad-boy memoir with violence tempered by concerns over health insurance.
Cooperation improves as the tune’s five minutes near their end, but there’s no escaping a disquieting, anxious sensation.
Spoon reaffirm their merits while stretching its comfort zone – and yours.
* Associated Press
Company Profile
Founder: Omar Onsi
Launched: 2018
Employees: 35
Financing stage: Seed round ($12 million)
Investors: B&Y, Phoenician Funds, M1 Group, Shorooq Partners
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Company%20profile
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Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
'Gold'
Director:Anthony Hayes
Stars:Zaf Efron, Anthony Hayes
Rating:3/5
