Gimme Fiction

Background

Britt Daniel began working on songs for Spoon's follow-up album to Kill the Moonlight in early 2003 when he received a letter from David Klowden in which he offered to let Daniel use his beach house if he wanted to "go on another writing stint". Daniel drove to Ocean Beach in San Diego and started writing songs for the next album in a small house that overlooked the ocean. He stayed there for a number of weeks and recalls working a lot but not feeling happy with the output of his work there.

Before the title Gimme Fiction was decided on, the album was going to be named The Beast and Dragon, Adored after the opening track, but Daniel later decided that he did not like this title. Daniel decided he wanted to use the word "gimme" in the title of the album and thought that "Gimme Fiction" was a great title for the artwork. He also has stated that the album cover is his favorite to date.

The title of the opening track, "The Beast and Dragon, Adored", came from an art magazine which Daniel found at his grandmother's house that contained a tapestry called "The Apocalypse: The Beast and Dragon Are Adored".

Reception

Gimme Fiction received widespread critical acclaim upon release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 84, based on 30 reviews which indicates "universal acclaim". Eric Carr of Pitchfork Media praised the album's musical diversity and cited "I Turn My Camera On" as one of the most "breathtaking" songs the band had ever produced. Zeth Lundy of PopMatters named the album the band's "crowning achievement", while Jesus Chigley of Drowned in Sound described it as "a nocturnal, introspective refinement of previous releases that still capitalises on Britt Daniel's classic pop song writing and sonic inventiveness."

In a 2005 back page column for the magazine Entertainment Weekly, author Stephen King named "I Summon You" as his favorite song of the year.

Legacy

In 2009, Rhapsody ranked the album at number 19 on its list of the 100 best albums of the decade. As of December 2009, Gimme Fiction has sold approximately 215,000 copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan. In his oral history of the album titled Gimme Facts, writer Sean O'Neal named the album "a historic forward leap" for the band.

On November 3, 2015, it was announced that a deluxe edition of Gimme Fiction would be released on December 11, 2015 to commemorate the album's 10th anniversary. Joe Goggins of Drowned in Sound, reviewing the re-issue, wrote: "If ever there was a fork in the road for the group, this album was probably it; knowing, as we do with the benefit of hindsight, that they picked the right route, Gimme Fiction sounds even more invigorating on reflection." Barry Walters of Rolling Stone called it a "transitional album that presaged 2007's pop breakthrough Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga." GQ critic Miles Raymer dubbed Gimme Fiction "the most important rock record of the last decade".

In pop culture

Track listing

All tracks written by Britt Daniel.

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes for Gimme Fiction.