Tuesday 17 August 2010



QBiM SPiNS: Rae Spoon Love Is a Hunter

CONTEST: Win a copy of Love Is a Hunter. See details below.

Since the release of Superioryouareinferior in 2008, Rae Spoon has spent a lot of time in Germany and the rest of Europe, apparently enjoying the disco nightlight and absorbing a lot of techno-influences along the way.  It may seem like a strange place for a country/folk crooner to take up residence, but Rae Spoon is a proverbial stranger in a strange land.  It was in Germany that he holed up and wrote an album’s worth of material that explored the dark side of his experiences touring across Canada as a transgendered country singer (the aforementioned Superioryouareinferior).  On that record Spoon traded banjos for bleeps, adding computers and electric guitars to the mix of traditional folk/country instrumentation, producing an evocative and beguiling genre-free record in the process.

For his follow-up, Spoon appears to have successfully navigated the psycho-analytical nature of his previous album and emerged on the other end, ready to go out into the world and make person-to-person connections.  You could say that the haunted is now the hunter, for in both title and tone, Love Is a Hunter appears to be all about finding community and connection while forging an identity of one’s own.  Some of the song titles sound like they could have been lifted from the back of a Technotronic LP circa 1990, but Love Is a Hunter is firmly rooted in 2010:  “Dangerdangerdanger” is all about surviving the perils of nightclub hook-ups and trying to see past the “glitter in my eyes” to the true person across the dance floor from you; “You Can Dance” chronicles what I and my university friends called the “wedge technique”, wherein one person throws caution to the wind and inserts themselves into a couple’s relationship, attempting to break one party free.  I can picture the scene in the night club now: two would-be-lovers looking forlornly at each other while Spoon croons “You can dance with the one you came with/or you can come home with me,” overtop of the album’s poppiest sounding beats.  The tempo and atmosphere drops a few gears on tracks like “Lighthouse” and “Death By Elektro” wherein Spoon detours back to his country and folk roots.  The most arresting of these slower moments is “Joan” (a duet with The Cliks’ frontman Lucas Silveira), the story of a trans couple who is being literally hunted through the city streets by ignorant men with shotguns, who “don’t understand/’cuz we’re not obligated/to be a woman or a man.”  Determined not to let fear be their guide, the couple decides to walk home holding hands, ready to take whatever comes their way with only love as their weapon.  It’s worth the price of the disc for this heartbreaking song alone, as it’s Spoon’s finest recorded moment so far.

The shift towards poppier sounds on Love Is a Hunter is not Spoon’s attempt at courting a wider audience (at least I don’t think it is), but a natural progression in his exploration of bending and going beyond the limitations of genre and style.  Spoon is not the kind of person who is easily classified and labeled, so why should his music be?  On album closer “Bethelightbethelightbethelight” Spoon sings “I’m lost without a fight”, and he could just as easily be talking about complex, inner conflicts as external ones with the world around him.  As long as he continues to follow his muse and remain true to himself, it wouldn’t matter if his next record blends ska and polka over hip-hop beats.  Rae Spoon is a fighter, a lover and a hunter; kind of wild, reckless and free.  In my mind there’s no better way for a songwriter to be.

Love Is a Hunter is released today on Saved By Radio.

MP3: Rae Spoon “You Can Dance”
Facebook: Rae Spoon
Myspace: Rae Spoon
Twitter: Rae Spoon

CONTEST DETAILS: Being a long time supporter of Rae Spoon, I really want to get the word about this record out there to the public at large.  You can help me do that, and get yourself a copy of the record, too.  How?  It’s simple really.  Using your preferred social networking site (Facebook, Twitter, Mysapce, whatever), post a link to this post, encouraging others to check out Spoon’s music.  Then email CONTESTS [at] QUICKBEFOREITMELTS [dot] COM with “I’m hunting for some Rae Spoon” in the subject line, your name and mailing address in the body, along with some evidence of your link to the post.  You can send me a link or a screen capture–whatever works for you.  The more links you post back to the review, the more chances you’ll have to be entered in the contest.  Of course if you don’t use any of those sites, you can still enter, as long as you promise to tell all your friends about Spoon when you see them next.  Deal?  Contest will close on Friday, August 20 at 11:59 pm.

UPDATE: Our rivals friends at Herohill.com are just as enamoured with Love Is a Hunter as I am and have an exclusive download of the opening song, “Death By Elektro” available for you.





by J. Di Gioia | Comments Off

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under QBiM SPiNS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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