ALBUM/ SPOON

Transference

(Merge)

Spoon sound like a band suffering from seventh album syndrome. 

Unlike the dreaded second album where a band tries to fit in all their new ideas and try to recreate the spark that made their first a hit, by the seventh some bands simply have nothing new to say.

It’s not that Spoon aren’t trying. Single ‘Written in Reverse’ has all the Spoon staples, piano, stripped back drums and raw vocals, with some added swagger in it's delivery.  But the more singer Britt Daniel repeats “I’m writing this to you in reverse…someone better call a herse”, the more it loses it's mystique and starts sounding lame. It's a metaphor for the album, the more you listen to it the more you realise how empty it is.   No amount of odd lyrics and shouting in the chorus manages to get ‘Written in Reverse’ to take off and the song flops.

Transference is Spoon in need of some musical Viagra. 

"The Mystery Zone" too has a promising start but ends disappointingly, cut off mid-word. It's one of a few strange production choices on the album that sound curious at first, but annoy with each subsequent listen, such as 'Is Love Forever?'s  strange drum effect that sounds like someone blowing a raspberry or a balloon deflating.

There are moments to enjoy, the simpler 'Out Go the Lights' achieves what it sets out to, as does piano ballad ‘Goodnight Laura’. But without the added production that made other Spoon songs simple pop gems, ‘The Way We Get By’s’ jaunty piano or 'The Underdog’s' triumphant horns, the majority of Transference feels unfinished.

Devout Spoon fans there will likely forgive the album's shortcomings, but for the casual listener the lack of a more melodic single in the vein of 'The Way We Get By' will likely leave them unfulfilled.

Upside: 'Goodnight Laura', 'Out Go The Lights'

Downside: 'Is Love Forever?', 'The Mystery Zone', 'Who Makes Your Money'

Best Lyric/ Whatever: "The cough, the wind, the rain was right, And all them heads went left to right"

Sounds like: They need a new producer