Spoon

Man, hats off to Spoon for continually kicking out the jams. They have continued to make solid record after solid record. So many good up-start bands peter out and dive in to the shitty side of the spectrum. Not Spoon.

They are one of those bands that no one can really hate. You can not like them, or think they're whatever, but you can't hate them. I think that says a lot about their transcendence of genre. They have this indie-pop-southern twang- rock thing that isn't too specific, but always good.

I fell in love with them 4 years ago, in the perfect setting of shiny Summer-time Boston. I had never heard them before and saw them at a free outdoor concert, and they, well, kicked out the motherfucking jams.

Their new record Transference is not a huge departure from the previous album, but they do drop some of the pop hooks. They do things we haven't seen in a while, they use pedals and vocals manipulations, that gives the album a kinda dark and groovy feel. It's a little intimate and the bass is a little funky. There is a lot of echo and weird synth and piano parts paired with straight forward guitar pound and a pinch of some off-time stuff. You definitely get a few strange Tim Burton feelings creeping out of the speakers in between the guitar riffs. The album just gets eerie and, in other places, rock-anthemy, making it a little incoherent, although I contend that this is a good thing. I forgive the subtle incoherence, because I do not want to hear a dark-creeper concept album from Spoon. Lead singer Britt Daniel's sad drawl isn't meant for that. Certainly not their best album, but fuck it, it's pretty sweet.