SPOONTransference
(Merge)
****½ (out of 5)
Here’s an underrated skill that not many bands possess: knowing how to make your instrumental breaks contribute as much towards the meaning of a song as your lyrics do. Take “Out Go the Lights,” a track from Spoon’s new album Transference: it’s an obliquely worded tune in which singer Britt Daniel seems to be trying to zero in on the moment when he felt himself stop loving a charismatic, ambitious ex-girlfriend, the kind who caused heads to turn the moment she entered a room. There’s a suggestion that she kind of grew beyond him in the final lines, “You were the one-two punch/You always looked good that way.” It’s an eloquent turn of phrase, but nowhere near as eloquent as the two minutes or so of wordlessness that follow, in which the tender bass melody and the hollow, steady drumbeats say everything you need to know about how Daniel regrets losing this woman and still kind of loves her... while still knowing it all probably worked out for the best.
That ability to hit a solid, steady, pared-down, straight-ahead groove but still carve out a grey-shaded emotional space within it is what I like best about Transference. It’s smart without tripping all over itself in its need to demonstrate its own cleverness, grown-up without being sedate or mellow. “The Mystery Zone,” especially, is one of those songs that hits the pocket so perfectly, it could keep on going for a couple of hours without your ever getting tired of it. And boy, do those muted, spacy, pear-shaped noises in the background of “Who Makes Your Money” ever sound cool!
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