Spoon
Transference
Merge Records [2010]
Sometimes simple is good and when you are on your seventh full length like Spoon, reverting back to your strengths is never a bad thing. Transference was self-produced by the band and peels back their more recent layers down to guitar, bass, drums, uncomplicated keys and Britt Daniel’s voice.
With Spoon you don’t need much more than that and like all the Spoon records before it, Transference needs multiple listens for it to take hold of your brain. Even though all of this seems easy, Spoon still challenges you sonically with abruptly ending more than one track at mid beat. Some fans will think maybe they have a defective download but these hard cuts make the record unique. They force you to rewind, play and rewind again, only to discover that this is the way it is supposed to be. That may actually annoy a few but this jagged indie rock is exactly why I enjoy Spoon.
Transference may or may not make our top 50 this year but longtime Spoon fans will soak it up and that is because it is what it is. Spoon don’t try and be something they are not. There is no stand out radio single, no catchy hooks and no big guitars but what you get is a perfectly quirky high quality indie record that not many other acts can even come close to!
Key Tracks: “Written In Reverse” / “Trouble Comes Running” / “Out Go The Lights”
Artists With Similar Fire: Talking Heads / Hockey / Pavement
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