Spoon announced their 10th album, Lucifer on the Sofa, and released the bluesy lead single “The Hardest Cut.” In a statement, singer-songwriter Britt Daniel described the new LP, out Feb. 11, as “the sound of classic rock as written by a guy who never did get Eric Clapton.”

The swaggering, guitar-heavy “Hardest Cut” — which Daniel cowrote with multi-instrumentalist Alex Fischel — conjures a Queens of the Stone Age level of intensity with its chunky, distorted riffs. But the chorus is vintage Spoon, leaning on the front man’s raspy yelp. “I spent a lot of 2018 and 2019 listening to ZZ Top,” Daniel explained.

Spoon paired the song with an experimental, menacing video in which they soundtrack an occasionally violent house party. You can watch and listen below. 

Lucifer on the Sofa, available to preorder now, was produced by Spoon and Mark Rankin (who, fittingly, has worked with Queens of the Stone Age). It also features contributions from Dave Fridmann and Justin Raisen.

The album is Spoon’s first in five years, following 2017’s Hot Thoughts. However, it was originally intended to come out much sooner, having been roughly 80 percent finished before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With the band forced to pause recording, Daniel found himself reconnecting with classic rock and wound up writing a batch of new material. 

The songwriter told Rolling Stone in September 2020 that the songs had “a lot of different moods,” creating a unique dilemma for structuring the record. 

“There’s one that’s got a Spanish flavor. There’s one that’s got an R&B flavor,” he said. “There’s a straight-up epic rock song. When you’ve got all those choices, you can really shape the identity of a record by leaving something off.”

Spoon, ‘Lucifer on the Sofa’ Track Listing
1. “Held”
2. “The Hardest Cut”
3. “The Devil & Mister Jones”
4. “Wild”
5. “My Babe”
6. “Feels Alright”
7. “On the Radio”
8. “Astral Jacket”
9. “Satellite”
10. “Lucifer on the Sofa” 

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