Tuesday, 19 Jan 2010
By Jon Stone | @jwstone
Spoon’s Transference hits early this year and hits hard. This record is not a reinvention, but neither is it a rehashing. This is Spoon and Spoon, as you well know, is a darn good band. Since this record has gotten and will continue to get a ton of press, I thought I’d mention a few things to listen for that I’d hate to see overlooked:
The piano. Spoon may get categorized as a guitar band, but wow — we don’t get a lot of piano playing like this in contemporary rock. Of course, deft piano playing is par for the course in Spoon with classic tunes like “The Way We Get By” and “Don’t Make Me a Target” but man, keyboardist Eric Harvey kills it on Transference. Check out the first 30 seconds of “Written In Reverse” You’ll see what I mean. The next song, “I Saw The Light” has an amazing piano-based break-down section and “Goodnight Laura” as an all-out piano ballad.
The intimacy. My penchant for the piano on this record may have something to do with this sticking out to me, but Transference — more than any of it’s predecessors — has a house-show production quality. It feels present and light and close. Right out of the gate with “Before Destruction” a simple thing like vocal mic placement (Daniels must have sung and played that acoustic guitar a few feet away instead of right into the mic) creates immediate intimacy. Some records never get there; this one does in the first 1/3 of the first song. I guess the band did their own production on Transference which, if this is the result, should be the way it gets done from now on.
The lyrics. And, really, the delivery of those lyrics. Britt Daniel is such a good singer. It’s not so much that there’s a poetry to the lyrics as it is that the songs on Transference, as on all Spoon records, are lyrical. Sometimes vocal style and word-choice/arrangement become a part of the musical aesthetic of a record in the way, for example, that the piano that I was mentioning earlier does. Some artists have a knack for knowing how to make a line sound good — to smack — over a musical phrase. Daniel Does.
Discuss: Let’s hear what you think. What stands out for you in this release? How does Transference stand up among Spoon’s other records? Will we still be listening to this in a year when people start putting together their favorite records of 2010?
Buy: Spoon – Transference
UPDATE: Today only (1-19-10) get a digital copy of the record at Amazon for only $3.99
January 19th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
It’s no “Girls Can Tell,” so whatever.
January 19th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
It’s no “Girls Can Tell” but it has that same pervasive ‘cool’ feeling from that album. My favorite part of the album is the nuanced little nuggets that are hidden underneath the main layer of the music. I feel like it’s a secret from the band that you can only hear when you listen to it in good headphones.
January 19th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
agreed. still don’t know what to think of it, but it sounds great with a good pair of headphones on.
January 19th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Hard to say if this is already jumping to “best of”….it’s a grower
Going to have to give this a couple weeks but Spoon has earned enough credit to allow suspension of knee jerk reactions.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
loving this so much. got the record and came home to use the download code because i was looking forward to a “headphone listen” but the code didn’t work. I’m suprised how much this album has grown on me, initially i wasn’t wowed like i expected to be. its a grower folks!!
January 20th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
The only Spoon album to come out and grab me upon first listen has been Gimme Fiction. The others need time to steep. I think Transference will be no different–I haven’t been slack jawed in my first few listens through, but I also have had a difficult time wanting to hear anything else.
January 21st, 2010 at 2:24 pm
It’s different, yet familiar. It’s classic Spoon at its best!
January 22nd, 2010 at 11:57 am
Anyone have the setlist from the NYE show? I am trying to remember which of these were played. Was “Mystery Zone” in the set?
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:17 pm
OK, I found the setlist:
1. Chicago at Night
2. Don’t You Evah
3. Small Stakes
4. Rhythm & Soul
5. The Ghost of You Lingers
6. Mystery Zone
7. The Beast and Dragon, Adored
8. Everything Hits at Once
9. Don’t Make Me a Target
10. Got Nuffin
11. Black Like Me
12. They Never Got You
13. I Summon You
14. Written in Reverse
15. Jonathon Fisk
16. My Mathematical Mind
17. Encore:
17. You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
18. I Turn My Camera On
19. Encore 2:
19. The Way We Get By
20. Someone Something
21. Underdog