Transference - Spoon
  • Band Name: Spoon
  • Record Label: Merge
  • Release Date: Jan 19, 2010
Transference Image
  • Summary: The seventh full-length album self-produced by the band strips the music down to nothing more than guitar, bass, precussion, and Britt Daniel's voice.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 37
  2. Negative: 0 out of 37
  1. It may pretty much lack any semblance of conventional verse-chorus-verse structure, but for those who find the metronomic abstractions of this band soothing, Transference is exactly what you crave, unadorned.
  2. Ratcheting his reticence up half a turn, he opens with his bleakest new song, and only if you follow his chronically noncommittal lyrics will you notice his emotions opening up along with his tunes, his attitudes along with his structures.
  3. 60
    But there is nothing here that will leap out of the speakers to entice the unconverted, despite the Weezer-like spod-rock of Fot Nuffin and Trouble's garage pop stomp. [Feb 2010, p. 92]

See all 37 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 20
  2. Negative: 1 out of 20
  1. BenH
    10
    Far and away my favorite spoon album. Every song has a great hook or groove, which we expect from spoon. More importantly, every song is distinctive without wearing out its welcome - the things you come to love about the songs don't define the songs. On past spoon albums, after giving it 5 spins, you can almost experience the entire song after only a few seconds. Each track on Transference has pleasures that only unfold throughout the song. So good. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. David
    5
    After listening to this about 5 or 6 times, I have to say I am very disappointed. After Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga which is I think their best CD I guess my expectations were too high. I would rank this as one of their worst efforts by far. Doesn't even come close to Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and worse than Gimme Fiction and Girls Can Tell. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. Just like many Spoon albums, Transference has great lyrics. Is Transference a good album? Not really. In the true spirit of Spoon, Transference has great beats. Is Transference a commanding addition to their repertoire? Far from it. Does Transference have the skinny white guy swagger that we've come to love from Spoon? Yes. Is it at least a decent release? Barely. It's just a boring album. The songs do a good job of establishing a mood but beyond that, they just kind of hang there, constantly hammering on the same idea and oftentimes without enough melody to make a complete song. Take "Who Makes Your Money" as an example. It's got a cool new wave kind of vibe with some neat little sounds blipping and beeping in the background, but at no time does it do anything new melodically, rhythmically or harmonically. This is the sort of approach that we get from far too much of the album. It's not all bad. I'll fully admit that "The Mystery Zone" is wonderful.This is the kind of tune that we expect to hear from Spoon. Mmmmm, yeah. That's some funky **** I like it. BUT THEN IT JUST **** ENDS. JUST LIKE THAT. IN THE MIDDLE OF A CHORUS. Who's the jackass that thought that was a good idea? It's like sitting down to a delicious lunch and then when you're halfway through your veggie burger (I'm a vegan. This is my blog. In my blog, you're vegan too. Get used to it.) and you're loving every single bite of it and BOOM. IT'S GONE. SOME ASS BASKET TOOK IT AWAY. I'm not totally sure why they ended the song like that. Were they unable to come up with a decent ending and just gave up? Did they think that was a good way to end an otherwise knock out of a song? I don't know. I am left befuddled and without the other half of my veggie burger. One might think that my previous paragraph was a bit superfluous. After all, it's just the way one song ended that made me mad. No. No it's not. This is what you can expect from most of this album. It constantly struggles to achieve the kind of brutal awesomenicity (This is MY blog and I use MY words. Get used to it.) that's commonly found on albums like Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Gimme Fiction. When it begins to achieve awesomenicity, they just pull the rug out from under you. Transference is one of the best reviewed albums of 2010, much to my surprise. It really makes me wonder why all of the other critics out there have give it such fantastic reviews. Perhaps it's because Spoon has wowed us time and time again with a seemingly never ending run of great albums and people are in denial about the sudden lack of impact that this one delivers. Whatever the case may be, I'm calling Spoon out on this one. Spoon, you guys are fantastic. You write fun, witty, funky grooves that make hipster girls boogie in their Converse All Stars. For that, we love you. Just don't put out another album like this. groovesandwich.typepad.com Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

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