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Soft Effects is the second EP by the indie rock band Spoon. It was released on January 21, 1997, by Matador Records. It was then re-released on CD with Telephono in 2006 by Merge Records. In 2020, it was reissued on vinyl.
Daniel picked "Mountain to Sound" as one of Spoon's career defining songs in a 2014 article with The Guardian. He said, "I think this one sums up the best of early Spoon songs. It’s loud and brash and has a lot of really heavy rhythm guitar, which is something we moved away from after the first or second record." He added that the band were more focused on going over well with bar audiences during this period, saying "the old records sound like a different band, and it was. I was in a different place, and we were writing songs for different reasons at that point."
In another 2014 interview with Pitchfork Media, Daniel reflected on the recording process, commenting that "when we made Telephono and Soft Effects, pre-production basically involved recording rehearsals on cassette." However, he noted that the band had never played "Mountain to Sound" together prior to the day they recorded it. He additionally claimed that the band thought keyboards were "uncool" at this time, and so they used guitar delay pedal effects on the song "I Could See the Dude", instead of keyboards.
PopMatters writer Jennifer Kelly gave the reissue an 8 out of 10 in July 2006, saying that " Soft Effects represents a giant step forward and a much fuller realization of the band’s sound. Now, you can hear all the elements that define later Spoon, the jangling stop-start guitars, the upright, new-wavish four-four strut, the smoky croon and sudden yelp of Daniel’s voice." Audra Schroeder of The Austin Chronicle gave the reissue three out of five stars in August 2006. She said that Soft Effects felt too short, but noted "it also points the direction of Spoon to come – anthemic, riffy, elegant. Ominous opener 'Mountain to Sound' sounds fantastic, fading into 'Waiting for the Kid to Come Out.' 'Get Out the State' descends into beautiful guitar squall, and all five songs point to the pop promise of 2001's Girls Can Tell." Mike Powell of Stylus Magazine wrote in July 2006 that "the reissuing of their first two Matador releases, 1996’s Telephono and 1997’s Soft Effects EP is probably the most formal pampering Spoon had yet." He went on to claim Telephono hadn't aged well, but said that "the 15 minutes of Soft Effects make it easy to forget Telephono entirely."
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