Spoon have never really been ones for the dance floor. Britt Daniel and company’s calling cards belong to different suites: rhythmic firepower, cohesive production, barfly poetry. Not so with “Can I Sit Next to You”, the second single from their ninth album Hot Thoughts; the band have really brought the funk: fervent handclaps, strutting guitars, plinking pianos, and of course, Britt Daniel’s titular come-on: “Can I sit next to you?/Can you sit next to me?”. The song’s groovy through line is tempered by an undulating synth line that initially arcs upward, only to swoop back down to the sharps and flats: an anguished sigh masquerading as a buoyant stroke. Between its taut rhythms and paradoxical mergers of sunny and sullen, “Can I Sit Next to You” bears a striking resemblance to They Want My Soul staple “Do You.” You might consider this new song a  carnally-minded older sibling, searching desperately for a human connection in spite of the great void yawning in the background.