They Want My Soul (Deluxe More Soul Edition)

10th anniversary reissue of They Want My Soul - newly expanded, with 11 demos and alternate versions, almost all of them previously unreleased. The reissue underlines the album’s vaunted place amid one of rock’s most bulletproof catalogs and offers a glimpse at the creative process behind a pivotal moment in ongoing the Spoon story. 

On a purely sonic level, They Want My Soul, which also peaked at No. 4 on the charts, may be the most lustrous album Spoon have ever made. So it’s especially enlightening to hear the rough-and-ready demos included in this deluxe edition. Daniel recorded some of these early versions on his own at his home studio, and a few were laid down with the full band at Eno’s Public Hi-Fi studio in Spoon’s hometown of Austin, Texas. Daniel’s solo piano version of “Inside Out” is a revelation, the song’s tender core fully intact. Across this ‘More Soul Edition,’ it’s thrilling to hear the evolution of “Do You,” which has stayed a staple of Spoon’s live sets over the last decade, from a lonely strummer called “The Way Love Comes” to a cymbal-crashing barnburner to the svelte single fans know and love. The demo of the album’s title track, a tongue-in-cheek rocker aimed at those trying to steal some of Daniel’s mojo, includes a few newly unearthed lines that rank among the songwriter’s funniest: “Nice young men on college quads/Sad cops in police squads/I’m not bragging I’m just saying, they want my soul!” These nascent takes, several of which include entire verses that were eventually rewritten, also reveal Daniel’s restlessness as a lyricist, always looking for a more potent turn of phrase to make a song burrow into the listener’s head.

Released: November 2024
Cat: OLE2094LP
Label: Matador Records