Spoon Transference (Merge) 2010 Purchase: Lala | Amazon

In the nineties, before the industry was completely in the toilet, major labels made it a habit to sign rising indie bands and drop them shortly thereafter due to lackluster sales.  Many bands didn’t live to tell the tale.  Some bands returned to the indie realm with mixed success.  A few bands thrived, cultivating an even larger following, and one band would go on to release 4 brilliant albums of increasing commercial success and establish themselves as arguably the most consistent indie rock band of all time.  That band is Spoon.

Transference, released this January, is Spoon’s 7^th album, and one of their best.  The fervor of the band’s fan base was evident in its debut at #4 on the Billboard chart, but critically, it’s been met with a collective shrug.  The general reaction is, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Yeah, Spoon’ s real good, but we already knew that, okay who’s the next big thing?”  Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve come to take Spoon for granted, and it’s time to wake the hell up.  Transference is not just good, it is GREAT, and it might be the best album released this year so far.

So why are people sleeping on Transference?  For starters, its lead single, “Written in Reverse,” is not one of the better songs on the album in my opinion, and it is certainly not on par with the brilliant lead singles from their last three LPs:  “The Way We Get By,” “I Turn My Camera On,” and “The Underdog.”  Second, one of the best songs, “Got Nuffin,” which they recently played on Letterman, was already released as an EP back in June of last year and got plenty of play on indie and college radio.  Now these aren’t really problems per se, but this might explain the lack of excitement about hearing the album.  So what about the people who have actually heard it, but aren’t evangelizing it?

When I first heard Transference, the adjective that came to mind was jarring, which isn’t usually a good thing, and not a word one would normally associate with Spoon.  Several of the songs on the first half of the record end rather abruptly, particularly the superb “The Mystery Zone” which literally cuts out in the middle of a lyric (the first time you hear it, you honestly wonder if the song just skipped).  These opening tracks almost feel like half songs (“Before Destruction,” “Is Love Forever”) or a series of musical sketches (“Who Makes Your Money”), but that isn’t actually a bad thing at all.  Just because a groove isn’t compelling enough to warrant building a full song around it, doesn’t mean it isn’t worthy of recording, and it’s a testament to Spoon’s maturity that they not only know where to show restraint but also have the guts to put this material on an album.

The most confusing, yet greatest, aspect of the album is that around the halfway point, just when you think you have it figured out, it completely changes direction.  At the 2:16 mark of track 6, “I Saw the Light,” when it sounds like the song is winding down and may cut out at any moment, the band drops into an extended jam that goes on for over 3 minutes.  It’s the kind of jam you expect to hear on classic rock radio, not a Spoon record.  While the next tune, “Trouble Comes Running” has a simplicity that jives with the album’s first half, most of the second half is populated by fully realized, lyric heavy tunes like the beautiful ballad “Goodnight Laura,” and slow burner “Out Go The Lights,” and more extended jams like the quirky, complex “Nobody Gets Me But You,” and the runaway train that is “Got Nuffin.”

While I am certainly a fan of the album’s first half, it’s the second half that makes Transference special.  Most albums do not get better as they go on, and very few build in the way this one does.  It’s a rare compositional flow and I think it has made it difficult for people to immediately ascertain the album’s value.  The fact that a song like “Got Nuffin” sits at number 10 on the track list says a lot about the remarkable depth of the material and the consistence in quality from beginning to end, two hallmarks of a classic album.  Whether or not the general consensus on Transference improves over time remains to be seen, and we’re still in the first quarter of the year, but come December I’m pretty sure this will show up on my short list for album of the year.

If you’re interested in seeing Spoon live, they are currently on tour.  I’m going to see them next Saturday when they will be playing the House of Blues in Boston.