For many bands, going back to the well and coming up with the same old water is poison. The reason people don't buy new albums by The Strokes and Interpol is because they already have the old albums. Spoon seems to be the exception to this rule. For 15 years Britt Daniel and company have been pumping out some of the best minimalist, garage-pop this side of The Kinks. It's rare to see Spoon take too many risks - they have a style and they're sticking to it - but somehow it doesn't seem to get old.
Their newest effort, Transference, finds them going right back to the base again - simple, dancey bass rhythms, electric keyboards warbling in at just the right moment and guitars that throw tempertantrums all over the place. The only thing that seems to change (on this album and throughout their career) is Daniel's voice which alternates between a throat full of gravel and a falsetto that would make Prince jealous.
In some subtle way, Spoon has always been able to maintain a compelling air of mystery and that is on display once again on Transference. "Who Makes Your Money," is a pop gem with a dark underbelly and Daniel's pleading question at the end of the tune could easily be mistaken for something off of Thom Yorke's solo album. "I Saw the Light," is both sweet and menacing and Spoon play up their own image on "The Mystery Zone." The show-stopper on the album is "Goodnight Laura," a pretty, Lennon-esque love song that sounds like it's being played on a piano that washed up on a Coney Island beach decades ago.
If your looking for something you've never heard before, you won't find it here. What you will find is a band that just keeps getting better and better at doing what it does.
