Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

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. 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".

Reception

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was released to highly positive reviews 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 Media 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 Media 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 Stone's 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.

All tracks written by Britt Daniel, except where noted.

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.

"The Underdog" (demo) 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

Charts

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

The song "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" was ranked #16 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.