Six albums into a career typically summed up by those not paying attention as "college rock," Spoon [ tickets ] continues to make dazzling pop music for the rest of us.

It will get a lot of attention for its weird title, but listeners engaging "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" will be rewarded for seeing the book through the cover. From the sly, sinuous--even cocky--leadoff track, "Don't Make Me a Target," to the album's stunningly evolved closer, "Black Like Me," Spoon has produced its most complete record yet, an assured and confident document that trades on classic grooves, hooks and familiarity, but still feels like something entirely new.

Leader Britt Daniels has taken the band through enough stylistic shifts over the years to build a reputation as a college radio Bowie, but "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" does the surprising thing and uses the basic framework from the group's previous album, 2005's "Gimme Fiction," this time applying a slightly more consistent shade of paint; Daniels' showman tendencies on that album's thematically wandering tracklist have been reined in somewhat here, trading expansion for consolidation of gains.

"The Ghost of You Lingers" uses an echo chamber effect and a simple repeated keyboard riff to achieve an inescapable haunted-house chill, but the following, Motown-influenced, "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb" doesn't erase the feeling of the previous song; it builds on it. Daniels is no longer getting caught up in the trap of having to write the perfect song every time out. Shades of colors and mood are allowed to emerge and retreat, so when the band switches from groove mode into something approaching outright weird on "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case," it feels more like sliding into wistful memory than a stylistic stop sign, with the track's quiet-loud-quiet dynamics recalling the group's early days as would-be Pixies, except with a decade's worth of context behind the borrowed riff.

The album closes with two of Spoon's finest songs ever: the almost Beatle-like "Finer Feelings," all throbbing bass and churning drums and nakedly honest vocals, and the previously mentioned "Black Like Me," which builds like a classic rocker, with Daniels admitting "I'm in need of someone to take care of me tonight," and later urging "all the weird kids in front/tell me what you know you want" as the song builds to an aching crescendo. Like the band itself, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" peaks late and satisfying.

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