Spoon Creates Big Noise With Inventive Indie Sound

It seems that the longer and longer and indie band stays around, the closer and closer they become to the mainstream. In the midst of trying incredibly hard to be and stay different, it can be hard for bands to reinvent themselves enough times to make them relevantly irrelevant. Relevantly irrelevant. If it sounds like a made up concept, it is. But, though it is made up, it seems like the perfect way to describe Spoon’s newest record, “Transference.” With Transference, Spoon writes the book every indie band should study on how to stay different with a new invention of sound and lyrics, while at the same time forcibly becoming relevant enough to succeed and call that new sound their own.

I know it is not surprising considering the band has been putting out albums since 1996, but the crispness of each instrument played on this album is astounding. Each guitar note resonates clearly on each song as do the drum beats and the occasional piano that is featured on a few tracks. In addition to the lyrics holding the record together, the untraditional musicality of the album helps string it together as well. Untraditional, not in a negative way, but in a different way, a way in which Spoon makes that separation from regular indie band trying too hard, to indie band with something new and interesting to share. Instead of the music smoothly holding the album together, Spoon chops it up, leaving the album held together by jumpy, beat driven tunes with abrupt endings. Upon the first listen it sounds a bit strange, but keeps you attentive and craving more.

On Mystery Zone, that beat driven spaciness is more prevalent than ever. Throughout the tune, the beats and musicality gets branded into you until you feel as if you are in your own Mystery Zone and therefore unaware of the fact that you have been listening to the same beats and music for five minutes. It’s an uncommon feeling to have, especially for a radio single, but it is a refreshing feeling that keeps you listening.

Other notable tracks on the record are Who Makes Your Money, another oddly beat filled song with an accompanying guitar, I Saw The Light, which includes a riveting closing jam, and Before Destruction, the song that opens the record and sets the groundwork for what’s to come as the album progresses.

Relevantly irrelevant. Spoon becomes that with this record. Between the odd beats, crisp guitar, and quirky lyrics, Spoon has created an indie masterpiece that sets them in a league of their own. Relevant enough to be talked about and irrelevant enough to maintain their outsider status and the unwritten OK to try whatever it is they want to try. Every indie bands dream, right? We can only hope.

It is one thing to make an album that sounds different just for the sake of being different. It would seem as if anyone could try and do that. The trick is creating an album with that element of different that enhances the listening experience and that truly makes the jump off track worthwhile. Spoon does that with Transference and hopefully will continue to do it on many albums to come.