Red Deer Advocate Review November 10, 2008

By Teplyske, Donald
superioryouareinferior

Produced with Lorrie Matheson, former Calgarian Rae Spoon’s first long-player since a satisfying 2006 collaboration with Rodney DeCroo is a revelation.

superioryouareinferior (the title hints at a comparison Spoon makes to the ocean; the greatest lake is found lacking) is a fully realized depiction of an artist in transition.

Casting aside the banjo from previous outings, Rae Spoon fleshes out songs using his voice as instrument. Spoon, Matheson and others contribute a range of charming instrumental sounds, but the music is sparse, secondary to the ambient qualities of the singing. And while the naïve plunk of his earlier, country-based music is missed, Spoon is strong and assured in this new direction.

Vocally part Brett Dennen, part Dolores O’Riordon, Spoon even gets his Feist on in several places. The songs capture poetic images within a smart, restrained presentation model — if the Cocteau Twins reformed as an alt.folk outfit, they might produce a recording suggestive of superioryouareinferior. Violin, guitar, bass, drums, electronica allsorts, and glockenspiel are woven into soundtrack with international appeal.

The supremacy of the ocean is again alluded to in Strength From Within, an inspirational song receiving two very different treatments on the disc: “You can’t fight the water with strength from within… we’ve gotta find a way to get the ocean on our side.”

“Do I have what it takes to make it through the other side?” Spoon asks at one point, and the answer must be a resounding yes.