Notofu.com: Spoon
Published by: Notofu.com
Date: February 1, 2010
Format: Web (www.notofu.com)
Type: Music Review
Spoon – Transference
2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga will probably always be the record that sets the standard for what it takes to be a great Spoon record. For better or worse, now, and for as long as they are around, the band has that benchmark to live up to, and anything they do will inevitably be picked apart in comparison to it. Imagine, for a moment, that Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga didn’t exist – we might, then, hear Transference with different ears. Maybe it would sound more fresh and new than it does. It would, also, probably be praised as a step in the right direction after Gimme Friction. But, alas, their previous effort can’t be taken back. So, where does that leave Transference?
There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with Transference, and that’s what makes this record difficult to box. It’s a solid record from a band that is doing its best to re-create what was successful in the past. But, where Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was essentially stacked with hit after catchy hit, that often-intangible element that hooks a listener and begs for tracks to be played again is missing with some of the content on Transference.
The album’s opener, “Before Destruction,” is uneventful, a song that for over three minutes mostly features a constant, slow beat and textural notes played on acoustic guitar and organs. After about thirty seconds, the beat and organ sounds drop out and Britt Daniel remains, singing and playing acoustic guitar, neither directly into a microphone, a technique that is intended to give an open, roomy feeling to the music, but instead of the desired effect, the part comes off sounding sloppy and awkward. Soon, though, when everything is back in, Daniel’s vocals and guitar are recorded in a more traditional manner as the song switches between the organ and the acoustic parts. Throughout the record there are some more of these small, near misses, such as this one, that tend to give the overall a sort of rushed, incomplete feeling.
That said, where Spoon falls short on Transference, the band also make it clear that it still has the chops to write a wonderful pop song. The album’s first single, “Written in Reverse,” is a clear indication that they have definitely still got it. The play between the drum, bass, guitar and piano provide a near perfect juxtaposition between the instrumentation and the vocals. Daniel is in vintage form here when it comes to his vocal performance, sending the microphone levels into the red with his signature scream-singing. All together, the song is tough and it moves and there are layers of texture, in the form of perfectly distorted bass or seemingly random piano at points which creates a song that is best heard in headphones, over and over again.
You could wonder all day about how good this record would be if Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga didn’t exist or about how good the record would be if the same successful techniques displayed in “Written in Reverse” were constantly present throughout the record, but the reality is thatTransference is what it is. It’s a pretty good offering from a band that clearly has the ability to write great songs and records, but as a whole, it simply isn’t as great as they have shown they can be.
3/5