Barely there
You know, I wasn't even planning to post this, because upon the first few listens, it didn't do much for me. I'm not sure if that's because it just isn't as good as Spoon's recent work (it's from 1997), or if it simply didn't do much for me. But I came to a couple of realizations:
1) this track is fun to listen to, because you can see where Spoon started and
2) this track is actually pretty decent.
The surprising thing about this song - as well as the rest of the Soft Effects EP - is how normal it sounds. This is before Spoon discovered their funk, before they tried to slip a little Prince into the equation, before they found the glories of the unadorned piano. This is a better-than-average rock band figuring out how to take mid-nineties grunge-pop and run with it.
This isn't my favorite track on the record - that distinction belongs to "Waiting For The Kid To Come Out" - but it's interesting, right? It definitely foreshadows their later use of stompy, off-kilter guitars, like in "The Fitted Shirt." And as some other reviews have already pointed out, it's fun to pinpoint what the band got rid of to pare down their sound.
The Soft Effects EP comes in a neat little digipak with Telephono - they had respective release dates of 1997 and 1996. My preference is Soft Effects, just because it's got more melody than the other disc, but both are definitely worth having if you're a fan.
You can buy the Telephono/Soft Effects EP package from Amazon, Insound, or Merge Records.