There are several reasons why 2010 is looking like it will be better than 2009. I won’t go into too much detail, only to say that Spoon’s new album Transference is one of them. And I can assure you, for as long as we’ve waited for this one, it’s worth it. 
Oh, it’s so worth it.
I saw Britt Daniel play a solo show in Portland back in October, and there I got but a taste of what was to come on Transference, and it peaked my excitement even more than when I originally heard about the 2010 return of Spoon.
If you’re reading this, you probably already heard “Got Nuffin,” “Written in Reverse” and “Mystery Zone,” the last of which leaked somehow in late 2009, but Transference has so much more to offer solid Spoon fans as well as new ones. The album opens on “Before Destruction,” with gritty acoustics and eerie harmonies, carried by lead singer/songwriter Britt Daniel’s effortless crooning. It proves to be a theme throughout the record – a mixture of the dirty, under-produced with the in-studio mixing that create the sound that we all know and love from this band.
One of my favorites on the album is perhaps the sexiest song I’ve heard Spoon put out – “Who Makes Your Money.” It features echoing vocals and an ever-present bass line, as well as Daniel’s perfect repetition of “oh oh… ooh.” That part really got me. And another of my standouts, “Trouble Come Running,” was one I heard at that solo show in Portland. Driven by the infectious hook, “here it come running again, trouble come running,” it’s hard to keep this one off repeat. And the boys are so tight on this track and have so much live synergy, you’d half-expect to turn around to see Britt Daniel singing right there.
Transference also includes something unexpected from Spoon – a ballad, the short and easy piano-laden track “Goodnight Laura.” I quite liked it, because it was a quick, but pleasant departure from the otherwise…Spooniness of the album? I don’t know what adjective to use to be honest, because there are so many that I could use to describe Transference. But they all would amalgamate into “Spooniness.” So yes, I invented a new word, just for this review.
Looking into Spoon’s back catalogue, Transference is closer to earlier records like Kill The Moonlight and A Series of Sneaks and less polished than Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. But Spoon is so talented that they don’t need to spend forever in the studio trying to get it perfect. It’s nice that Spoon has stayed independent with Merge Records for all these years, because none of their records ever strayed away from who they are, but developed beautifully.
There are so many buzz bands out there that I admit getting a little ga ga over in recent years, but if there’s one band that never disappoints – it’s Spoon. Sure, there are bands that have phenomenal, life-changing debuts, but fail miserably on the second. And again fail to redeem themselves on the third. Spoon doesn’t have just one great record to bank on; they have all their albums. When picking which albums to include on my personal best of the decade list, I had a hard time not including more than two Spoon records. That wouldn’t have been very fair for the other artists, but surely deserved.
And based on Transference, 15 years into their career, it looks like Spoon isn’t going anywhere soon.
Track Listing:
- Before Destruction
- Is Love Forever?
- The Mystery Zone
- Who Makes Your Money
- Written in Reverse
- I Saw the Light
- Trouble Comes Running
- Goodnight Laura
- Out Go the Lights
- Got Nuffin
11 Nobody Gets Me But You
