Hot Thoughts

Hot Thoughts is the ninth studio album by American rock band Spoon. It was released on March 17, 2017, through Matador Records.^[3][4] It is also the first Spoon album since 2002's Kill the Moonlight to not feature multi-instrumentalist Eric Harvey, who quietly left the band after finishing a world tour in support of 2014's They Want My Soul.

Hot Thoughts
Studio album by Spoon
Released	March 17, 2017
Recorded	December 2015 – July 2016[1]
Studio	Tarbox Road (Cassadaga, New York) Public Hi-Fi (Austin, Texas) The Catacomb (Los Angeles, California)
Genre	Indie rock alternative dance dance-punk art pop[2]
Length	41:52
Label	Matador
Producer	Dave Fridmann Spoon
Spoon chronology
They Want My Soul (2014) Hot Thoughts (2017) Everything Hits at Once (2019)
Singles from Hot Thoughts
"Hot Thoughts" Released: January 17, 2017 "Can I Sit Next to You" Released: February 21, 2017 "Do I Have to Talk You Into It" Released: October 23, 2017

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.7/10[5]
Metacritic	82/100[6]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
Chicago Tribune	[8]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[9]
The Guardian	[10]
NME	[11]
Pitchfork	7.4/10[12]
Q	[13]
Rolling Stone	[14]
The Times	[15]
Uncut	8/10[16]

Hot Thoughts received acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on 30 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".^[6]

Jillian Mapes of Pitchfork wrote "Spoon stay in their well-earned lane but tweak the formula just enough on their ninth album, keeping their reliably great songwriting and adding new, electronic textures."^[12]

Accolades

Publication	Accolade	Rank	Ref.
ABC News	Top 50 Albums of 2017	3	[17]
Consequence of Sound	Top 50 Albums of 2017	9	[18]
Diffuser.fm	Top 25 Albums of 2017	4	[19]
Double J	Top 50 Albums of 2017	14	[20]
Flood Magazine	Top 25 Albums of 2017	6	[21]
The Ringer	Top 10 Albums of 2017	4	[22]
Spectrum Culture	Top 20 Albums of 2017	11	[23]
Time Out	Top 29 Albums of 2017	14	[24]
Under the Radar	Top 100 Albums of 2017	13	[25]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Hot Thoughts"	Britt Daniel, Sean Dineen	3:50
2.	"WhisperI'lllistentohearit"	Daniel	4:20
3.	"Do I Have to Talk You Into It"	Daniel	4:20
4.	"First Caress"	Daniel, Alex Fischel	2:48
5.	"Pink Up"	Daniel	5:56
6.	"Can I Sit Next to You"	Daniel	3:54
7.	"I Ain't the One"	Daniel	3:48
8.	"Tear It Down"	Daniel, Laura Pergolizzi	4:20
9.	"Shotgun"	Daniel, Dineen	3:38
10.	"Us" (instrumental)	Daniel, Ted Taforo	4:56
Total length:			41:52

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes for Hot Thoughts^[26]

Spoon

• Britt Daniel – vocals, guitars, keys, piano, percussion, bass
• Jim Eno – drums, percussion, keys
• Alex Fischel – keyboards, piano, guitars, percussion
• Rob Pope – bass, percussion

  Production

• Spoon – production, recording, mixing
• Dave Fridmann – production, recording, mixing
• Brad Bell – engineering
• Matt Gerhard – engineering
• Mike Fridmann – engineering
• Max Lorenzen – engineering
• Grant Eppley – engineering
• Howie Weinberg – mastering
• Gentry Studer – mastering
• Janet Weiss – song sequencing

Additional musicians

• Sabrina Ellis – vocals (track 8)
• Sara Houser – vocals (tracks 4, 6 and 8)
• Stephen Patterson – extra drums (track 5)
• Blair Robbins – vocals (tracks 4, 6 and 8)
• Brad Shenfeld – darbuka, saz (track 5)
• Ted Taforo – saxophone (track 10)
• Sharon Van Etten – vocals (track 4)

  Artwork

• Christine Messersmith – cover image
• Alan Hynes – design
• Britt Daniel – design

Charts

Chart (2017)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[27]	21
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[28]	31
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[29]	48
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[30]	194
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[31]	39
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[32]	27
French Albums (SNEP)[33]	192
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[34]	40
Japanese Albums Chart[35]	171
New Zealand Heatseekers Albums (RMNZ)[36]	8
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[37]	28
Scottish Albums (OCC)[38]	62
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[39]	100
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[40]	33
UK Albums (OCC)[41]	76
US Billboard 200[42]	17
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)[43]	2
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[44]	2
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[45]	2
US Vinyl Albums (Billboard)[46]	1