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Album Reviews
Album Review: Spoon – Transference (Anti-)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 19 February 2010
Taking Metacritic as our guide, it would be fair to suggest that Spoon were among the most critically acclaimed bands of the last decade as a whole. Four successive albums; ‘Girls Can Tell’ (2001), ‘Kill the Moonlight’ (2002), ‘Gimme Fiction’ (2005) and ‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’ (2007) all comfortably received an average score of above 80, which is generally taken as the benchmark of something very impressive indeed.
The most noticeable difference between ‘Transference’ and ‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’ is the absence of Jon Brion, the producer most widely known for his work with Aimee Mann and Kanye West. Brion lent his prodigious production talents to the band on their last long player, and gave it a sleek, polished veneer that complemented Britt Daniel’s considerable songwriting ability. Almost in reaction to this, Spoon have decided to self-produce ‘Transference’ and return to a more rough and ready, back to basics approach. The results are immediate; Daniel’s distinctive, rasping vocals are so hidden in the mix of opening track ‘Before Destruction’ that you can almost imagine that the band just handed their demos to the label, and they released them straight away.
But this change in approach doesn’t detract from what Spoon have successfully achieved on previous albums. As you’d expect from such a consistent band, there’s a sense of familiarity – you know what to expect – excellent songwriting, tight musicianship and enough sonic trickery going on to set Spoon apart from their peers.
The standout tracks certainly posses such things, and are as good as anything Spoon have previously released. Rob Pope’s bass is the driving force behind such tracks as ‘Who Makes Your Money?’ and ‘Got Nuffin’, though Jim Eno’s percussion combines for a mean rhythm section too. The dissonant piano on ‘Written in Reverse’ and ‘Nobody Gets Me But You’ recalls the experiments that were a feature of ‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’ and the likes of ‘Trouble Comes Running’ hints at flirtations with new genres.
Spoon might be pigeon-holed in the all-encompassing American indie-rock genre, but there’s more than enough interesting facets about them to make them stand out from the crowd and, even seven albums down the line, their creativity shows no sign of abating. KW
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