Spoon - Transference

YOURZ

Spoon are one of those bands whose name I saw recurring in both movie and television soundtracks.  I kind of had an idea what they were like due to the labels they'd been signed to over the years, Matador and Merge to name a couple.

There were also various recommendations and appearances on bucket lists from those whose opinions I admire.  To be honest, I thought Spoon were akin to bands like Fuel or Train.  How wrong could I be?

Transference, their seventh and latest album, is full of quirky dark pop.  While Mine suggests their sound to be crowded (see below), I actually think the opposite.  To my (dodgy at best) ears, this sounds almost as though it is recorded live, albeit in a studio.  I really dig the sound of it.  There is something essentially pure about this, something I think a lot of over-produced, shined-up bands of today could learn from.

If anything, this is an album full of great ideas.  It's like a notepad full of doodles by a really good artist.  Most of it captures something truly worthwhile and works brilliantly but some of it was most probably done after he'd been out really late with the lads and he can barely remember what he was trying to do and, well, is shit.

Having said this, I really took to Got Nuffin', Nobody Gets Me But You and Writing In Reverse, even if it contains the bloody awful couplet "I'm writing this to you in reverse, someone better call a hearse".  But the centre piece, for me, is the drama and menace of the dark disco that is I Saw The Light.  A great idea, well executed.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

While kicking around for a little background on this band, I read that this was the first album they'd done without the help of an outside producer.  I have a message for Spoon: BIG MISTAKE.

Seriously, I liked the songs, the guy can sing a bit, although he did occasionally descend into indie-whine, but the production?  My eight-year-old nephew could have done it.  In fact he might have: there's a LOT of stuff on there, so much so it sounds like someone with ADD just ran around the studio pushing buttons.

The rockier numbers are better, and I liked I Saw the Light enough to listen to it all the way through.  But if I'd been listening to this in a record shop, I would have given up after the first three songs,  Gah.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information go to http://www.spoontheband.com/

Superchunk - Foolish

YOURZ

There was a time when I listened to this album a lot.  And by this I mean at least once every day.  Seriously.  In fact, I wrote a song that became a centrepiece in my band's repertoire that was heavily influenced by this album, so much so that a lot of friends called it our Superchunk song.  Ah, those were some good days...  ('scuse me while I reminisce a bit more...)

Okay, done now.

The Chunksters were part of the Chapel Hill scene, which also spawned Polvo, Archers Of Loaf and, most notably, Ben Folds Five.  Superchunk's Mac and Laura also founded the hip indie label, Merge, which is still going strong today (and includes American indie darlings such as She & Him, Spoon and The Shout Out Louds).  And the band itself is still going strong, something of a feat considering most of their contemporaries have long broken up.

I still get shivers up my spine when I hear tracks like Driveway To Driveway or The First Part.  And while I know Mine is probably gonna hate Mac's voice, (Mine says: you know me so well, dear) the raw emotion and fragility of  it is still kicks me in the guts.  Foolish might be this album's name but its nature is so much more.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

So who told guitarist Mac McCaughan he could sing?  (YourZ sez: ha, I knew it)  Seriously, this album has some nice tunes on it, but by the time I was on to about the fourth or fifth track, that high-pitched sounds-like-you-trod-on-a-cat wailing gave me a headache.  I really got the whole grumpy-old-woman bit about it.

In fact, this is one instance where the fact they'd mixed the vocals down and the instruments up didn't bother me at all.  This album would have been better if it was wholly instrumental.  Or if someone else sang.  Anybody.  Even Bob Dylan.  (OK, maybe I exaggerate there.)

The songs are also a bit same-y after a while, and I guess that means I've outgrown the whole indie-band thing, when you can forgive poor execution for the fact they have a lot of raw energy.  Give me execution any day. 

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information: http://www.superchunk.com/

In our collection we also have Here Is Where The Strings Come In