specifically avoid all of that." He cited the Kinks, the Supremes, and Elvis Costello as inspirations for the album; specifically, Costello's Get Happy!! album, which he had borrowed from his then-girlfriend Eleanor Friedberger. Daniel saw the album as a last-ditch attempt to find success. He explained: The track "Me and the Bean" is a cover of a mid-1990s Austin, Texas band called The Sidehackers. The songwriter of The Sidehackers, John Clayton, played bass on Spoon's subsequent album, Kill the Moonlight. Reception Girls Can Tell saw significant critical acclaim and was heralded for its change in style from the band's previous work. Pitchfork's Nick Mirov said of the album "It's a great thing, hearing a band grow up without losing sight of what made them so vital in the first place; and seeing as how Girls Can Tell might not have ever seen the light of day, it makes it even better. It's worth cherishing." The A.V. Club commented, "Few outside the band would deny the irony of releasing such a strong album after such an unceremonious major-label dumping." Stereogums Tom Breihan, on the album's twentieth anniversary, noted, "The album hasn't lost any of that simple but hard-to-describe coolness." Pitchfork placed Girls Can Tell at number 96 on its list of top 200 albums of the 2000s (decade). Track listing Personnel Spoon Britt Daniel – guitar, voice, keyboards Joshua Zarbo – bass Jim Eno – drums Additional musicians Conrad Keely – Mellotron on tracks 1 and 8 Laura Phelan – vibraphone on tracks 1 and 10 Lee Spencer – harpsichord on track 5 Ames Asbell – viola on track 10 Charts References 2001 albums Spoon (band) albums Merge Records albums