Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

"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". ==Packaging and release==

The album's title is the former title for the song "The Ghost of You Lingers", which was meant to sound like the song's staccato piano part. The band changed the song's title, but decided to adopt the name "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" as the album title, with Britt Daniel calling it a "great little Dadaist term". The completed sculpture on the right is now in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art. An iTunes-exclusive bonus track, "Deep Clean", was packaged with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. A limited edition copy of the album was released along with a bonus disc entitled Get Nice! The disc includes 23 minutes of mostly instrumental songs and a few demo tracks. Early buyers of the album also received a free 7" containing a demo of "The Underdog", and the B-side "It Took a Rumor to Make Me Wonder, Now I'm Convinced I'm Going Under", which had previously appeared on the UK edition of the "Sister Jack" single. ==Reception==

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga received critical acclaim from music critics. 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." Pitchfork 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. 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. Bonus 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==

Personnel taken from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga liner notes. Spoon • Britt Daniel – vocals • Jim Eno – drums • Eric Harvey – piano, keys • Rob Pope – bass Additional musicians • Ron Blake – trumpet on "The Underdog" • Jon Brion – bass, Chamberlin, and hammer on "The Underdog" • John Catchings – cello on "Black Like Me" • Matthew Colecchi – koto on "My Little…" • Jason Freese – saxophone on "The Underdog" • Graham Hughes – backing vocals on "Eddie's Raga" • Eggo Johanson – tambourine • Yasmine Kittles – backing vocals on "Rhthm and Soul" • Mike McCarthy – koto on "My Little…" • Tommy Poole – horns on "Cherry Bomb" • Francisco Torres – trombone on "Underdog" • Tosca string quartet – strings on "Black Like Me" • Billy White – flamenco guitar on ""My Little…" Production • Mike McCarthy – production and engineering (all except "The Underdog") • Britt Daniel – production, design • Jim Eno – production; engineering (all except "The Underdog") • Jon Brion – production on "The Underdog" • Eric Harvey – production on "The Underdog" • Rob Pope – production on "The Underdog" • Greg Koller – engineering on "The Underdog" • Matthew Colecchi – engineering assistance • Todd Brodie – engineering assistance • Bret Rausch – engineering assistance • Leslie Richter – engineering assistance • Howie Weinberg – mastering • Ugo Mulas – cover photo ==Notes==

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga debuted at number 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 number 58, selling 11,000—a total of 88,000 copies in 4 weeks. Album Singles The song "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" was ranked number 16 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. ==References==