Spoon - Transference
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Free Music Notes for Transference
Free Music Review: Picture Yourself
Hit: 5 Stars
Being blown away by this awesome CD as soon as you listen to it front and back..it'll happen trust me! Britt Daniel is a genious hands down! Every song IS classic spoon. Dont think any less. K Thanks ByeFree Music Review: Spoon sets the bar for a new decade
Hit: 5 Stars
Spoon are clearly on top of their game and still reinventing rock and roll. I wouldn't skip one song while listening to this album. I just wish there was more.....cuz i'm greedyFree Music Review: Spoon - Transference 8/10
Hit: 4 Stars
Listening to another Spoon album is like slipping on an old, beloved coat. It might have been a while, but everything just seems so right; the fit is snug, the feel is comfortable, and the sense of becoming reacquainted with a long-lost friend is undeniable. It's been like this for a while with Spoon, to the point that it wouldn't be surprising if they just kept making the same record over and over again. It speaks to their creativity and Britt Daniels' general inability to sit still that this has never been the case - from the definition of their sound in 2001's Girls Can Tell to exquisitely sleek, fat-free album that was 07's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Daniels and the band have used each new record as an opportunity to refine their sound. The turn of the decade finds them sharpening the Spoon aesthetic to yet another fine edge, sanding off some of the worldly influences and focused songwriting on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga to make an album wholly different in tone and mood, but one that is, at its heart, thoroughly Spoon.
For most of their career Spoon have built themselves an identity on drummer Jim Eno's clock-like rigidity and pinpoint rhythms and Daniels' distinctive nasally snarl, but it's apparent from Transference opener "Before Destruction" that the band is looking to tinker this time around. Not that anything appears much different to start off with, as a simple drumbeat anchors a wavering keyboard before Daniels' ragged pipes and a loose guitar roll in. Rather, it's the devolution of the song as it continues that speaks to something new and exciting, layers of Daniels' harmonies building up on each other into a fulfilling, almost Eastern-tinged atmosphere.
It's subtle and relaxing, a wave of sound that is more calming than revolutionary, and as Transference continues along past the bouncy "Is Love Forever?" and "The Mystery Zone," both songs that could have been plucked from either of their last two albums, one wonders whether it was just a minor burp in what seems to be a retread of their sound. A happy, eminently enjoyable copy, to be sure, but still a copy. But then a song like "Who Makes Your Money" or "I Saw The Light" comes around and Transference finally comes into its own. Whether immersing itself in a muddy, haunting minimalism that would make Kill The Moonlight shudder in delightful revulsion, or reveling in the dark layers of noise and tension that make up "I Saw The Light" and "Got Nuffin," Transference takes Spoon and sends them to an atypically shadowy place.
Spoon have been known for getting to the point, so it's a bit disconcerting and even more illuminating when so many of the songs here meander about long after Daniels' has finished saying what he has to, beyond the obligatory howl and moan. It's what makes songs like "Who Makes Your Money," "Before Destruction," or the dissonant mess of closer "Nobody Gets Me But You" so refreshing, and what makes the sharp jabs of guitars and the typically Danielsian wordplay in more stereotypically "Spoon" songs like "Written In Reverse" and "Trouble Comes Running" stand in such high-toned contrast. It's a pleasant mix, one that cherrypicks from each of Spoon's previous albums yet adds a dash of something subtler, an undertone of angst, confusion, and instrumental tension made clear in Daniels' problem in "Written In Reverse:" "I wanna show you how I love you / but there's nothing there."
But it's Transference's simplest and most unusual moment that is its strongest. "Goodnight Laura" is Daniels at his most heartbreakingly earnest, a short, sincere ballad that is as close as Spoon will ever get to a straightforward love song. It's bare-bones nature and disarmingly naked emotion is almost shocking to longtime fans accustomed to the layers of cynicism and sarcastic wordplay Daniels has built up like armor over the years. At its core, though, it's also quintessentially Spoon - stark and honest, and when Daniels' best exclamation of love is to intone mournfully as the song ends, "don't you know, Laura, you're alright? You're alright," one is reminded that this is still the Spoon their fans know and love. It's memorable for its uniqueness and its utter disregard for the formula that has worked so well in the past, and like Transference as a whole, it's another successful chapter in one of indie rock's most consistent stories.
Free Music Review: If it ain't broke...it's Spoon
Hit: 4 Stars
In the world of music, if you want to survive, you need to change with the times; adapting your style as the years progress to accommodate new audiences while bringing your original fans along for the ride. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, U2, Metallica, and countless other acts endured for decades for this very reason. The results are not always phenomenal, but the bands inevitably survive and continue to adapt. For most acts, this has been accepted as the status quo, but not for Spoon. Ever since their first album, Telephono, hit the shelves in 1996, Spoon has been churning out brilliantly simplistic masterpieces of the pop persuasion with very little deviation from their original formula.
Considering Spoon's reputation for control of their trademark sound, it's surprising to learn that this is the first album Spoon has produced themselves, but the signs are definitely present in their work. "Got Nuffin," Spoon's first single from this record, was released June 30, 2009 and from the first beat of the drum, there is an obvious lack of polish on the recording. Now, with the full album finally released, Spoon provides us with gentle reminders of their new control. The opening track, "Before Destruction," calmly introduces a simple instrumentation before Britt Daniel's vocals enter sounding like they're being sung from the next room over. This continues halfway through the first verse until suddenly everything becomes present and clear as if the section we just heard was a lost scratch demo introduction to the real song.
The following tracks, "Is Love Forever?" and "Mystery Zone," bring back the chunking guitars and toe tapping rhythms that longtime fans have grown to love and expect before "Who Makes Your Money" resumes Spoon's production technique experiments. Britt Daniel's songwriting formulas remain in-tact, but it often sounds like Spoon wanted to try every effect and editing tool they had access to on this record. This is most obvious on "Trouble Comes Running" which has an apparent tape hiss throughout the entire track while utilizing the same demo take to polished release switching heard on "Before Destruction."
With their first production effort, Spoon's Transference has the potential to become an instant fan favorite. It isn't as meticulously put together as their most successful releases, but it sounds almost as if you're present for that final studio rehearsal when everything just clicks. I have no doubt Spoon will continue to release great music throughout this decade under their own direction. If this album is any hint of things to come, we have a lot to look forward to.
Similar Artists: The Clash, Elvis Costello
Track Suggestion: Written in Reverse
Free Music Review: "Picture yourself set up for good in a whole other life."
Hit: 4 Stars
Critical reception for Transference wasn't quite as strong overall as for Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, but in the end I might prefer it a little bit. It's a bit less structured and produced, and a little more sloppy and jammy. It's definitely a deliberate choice, and one that I thought tended to work out. Some of the flourishes are a bit weird, like some pointless echoing and abruptly ending tracks that I was quite in the middle of enjoying, but it also pays off big in songs like "Got Nuffin'", which is four minutes of sort of the same thing, but it's a thing I really like and it simply wouldn't have happened on a more focused record. I definitely find myself overall liking Spoon more than I did when I first listened to them, as they seem to me to be simply the perfect example of what a rock band should be these days. Britt has a great voice for it, and when you combine their talent for songwriting with their ability to play a damn song, there's not much they don't have covered.
"Before Destruction" definitely isn't the sort of song I expected them to open with, and it sort of sets that unusual tone for the whole thing. "The Mystery Zone" is one of the jammier pieces on the album, and a pleasant one to let wash over you for five minutes. "Who Makes Your Money" is enjoyable in a similar way, but before anyone gets too worried about them getting soft "Written in Reverse" plays, which sounds more like something from their last album and features a lot of shouting and cool interplay. "I Saw the Light" is the longest track, and is another nice jam before it switches gears midway through and becomes more piano driven. "Goodnight Laura" is definitely the ballad of the album, and is pleasant enough although it doesn't do anything as interesting as "The Ghost of You Lingers". "Out Go the Lights" is another good, more mellow song, maybe my favorite on the record. It ends pretty strong, and while never too brilliant, it's a completely solid and enjoyable rock album. I'm definitely going to check out their earlier stuff at some point when everyone totally adored them.