Send "Spoon " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 I can't imagine the kind of prude that could dislike a band like Spoon. Sure, they're a popular indie-pop band coming up during the age of forums and blogs - there's going to be some backlash. But I fail to understand it: the band basically specializes in carefree, easy-going pop and creamy, irresistible hooks, without becoming (too) annoying. And they've done this successfully for four albums straight now, Transference being an attempt to be the fifth. What's not to like? What kind of self-important douche could not like this kind of shit, at least every once and a while? Most often, someone who dislikes a Spoon album usually cites the band's sterile sound as their main problem, which is somewhat understandable: Spoon is a band that keeps their orchestration tight and their songwriting tighter. But this what I like when it comes to, say, Kill the Moonlight or Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. I appreciate how they never overdo it. I visit or revisit a Spoon album with the expectation that I'm going to get the kind of suave, taut hooks that the band specializes in, accented by Britt Daniel’s slanted, uneven wails. And this is why I like Transference so much. Sure, it's different enough from their other stuff to not be considered a retread of old material - the off-key piano ballad “Goodnight Laura” and the trippy, oddly funky psych-out “Who Makes Your Money” are key examples of great songs that differ from the idea of a traditional Spoon song. But much of Transference has all the aesthetic hallmarks of a great Spoon album, if not being thematically being what Spoon's previous albums were all about (more on that later). As noted, this is hardly a bad thing, especially when this tried formula results in songs as irresistible as “The Mystery Zone” and “Written in Reverse”....full text |
| Onethirtybpm |
| Think back to the pre-release chatter concerning Spoon’s confoundingly titled 2007 record, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the first track available for Internet-savvy fans being “The Ghost Of You Lingers.” The track announced itself with incessant piano pounding and not a whole lot else besides Britt Daniel’s ethereal vocal take and some funny sound effects. One hell of a red herring, “Ghost” turned out to represent virtually nothing about the rest of Ga, instead being surrounded by so many of the band’s immaculately crafted pop songs and perhaps their finest collection of such yet. Printed boldly in the album’s liner notes were the words “This record is a hit!” and indeed – whether or not it could be properly labeled as their “breakthrough” – I’ve heard “The Underdog” in places I’d never have expected to hear a Spoon song. Enter Transference, now two and a half years after Ga. Not counting “Got Nuffin’,” a track which appeared on its namesake EP last year and is found here as well in slightly altered detail, the first taste of Spoon’s latest offering came in first single “Writing In Reverse.” The track is everything the aforementioned “Ghost of You Lingers” was not – a stomping, snarling pop song with as much swagger as anything with Spoon’s name on it. Turns out, the bait-and-switch of Ga applies here as well, only in, erm, reverse; “Written in Reverse” turns out to be one of the few tracks here that’s immediately recognizable as the kind of pop music Spoon have been so expertly producing the past decade. This time out, Britt & Co. lean heavily on production trickery and lean grooves rather than their trademark ascetic precision and tight hooks. Coming on the heels of Ga, it’s immediately tempting to classify Transference as the band’s “experimental” record – an intentionally more difficult set and a reactionary “suck on this!” statement to anyone standing by for another “The Underdog.” Tempting, though not necessarily accurate. While it’s true that most of the songs on Transference eschew traditional song structure for less obvious routes toward melodic payoff, the payoff is still there and it’s still characteristically Spoon. “Is Love Forever,” the second track and arguable MVP of this record illustrates my point: it’s a stilted, two-minute jolt of clanging guitars and Britt Daniel rhythmically spitting out phrases, the only discernible chorus coming in the form of periodic, increasingly feverish shouts of the song’s title – yet the track has the same stick-to-your-ribs quality of Spoon’s finest. Elsewhere, the initially murky “Before Destruction” burns slowly before allowing Daniel’s vocals out from behind a curtain of buzzing keyboards. “I Turn My Camera On” heir-apparent “Who Makes Your Money” stealthily gets under the skin and won’t leave until the aforementioned follow-up track “Written In Reverse” forces it out....full text |
| Addictivethoughts |
| There’s good news and bad news. First, the good: Transference, Spoon’s latest album proper in two and a half years, isn’t going to lose them any fans. The bad: it probably isn’t gonna win them many new ones, either. Nope, it isn’t as good as Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, nor as catchy. The kneejerk reaction is to label Transference “a grower” — that indelible term critics seem to love so much — and that’s about as apt a basic description as you’ll find. There are only a couple tunes here with relatively catchy hooks, and one of them you might have heard already (“Got Nuffin” was released with three other experimental tracks on an EP last year). The others are more complex, or at least more wandering. A fellow critic sarcastically claimed this to be Spoon’s Kid A, an idea which is both ridiculous and completely understandable once you’ve listened. Ga 5x was generally considered Spoon’s biggest mainstream breakthrough, and a cynic might view what they are doing here as a deliberate step backward. They’re not letting themselves succumb quite so easily to fame — they’re struggling against it. And a less talented group might let that struggle affect the strength of their music, but Transference, for the most part, is still very much a Spoon album. The interesting thing about Spoon, in fact, is that they can make meandering seem purposeful. “Mystery Zone,” one of the album’s lesser tracks, opens with a fairly tongue-in-cheek Beatles reference and searches for a rhyme or reason, but Britt Daniel’s crackling, sandpaper croon seemingly lends direction. Even when the song appears to have no aim, disregarding it merely as filler seems somehow inappropriate....full text |
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