Kensington Blues

I’ve been listening to Spoon’s Transference for the past couple weeks. They’re on of my favorite bands. Britt Daniel has become a great lyricist and the songs have gotten catchier with every album. That is, until now.

I heard an interview with the band last night that made Transference more appealing than it is. Daniel and Jim Eno made the album’s weaknesses sound like strengths. There’s no hiding the fact that their efforts to make an “uglier” record succeeded, so why not embrace it?

They knew what sound they wanted and produced the record themselves, but that’s not the issue. Transference is immediately recognizeable as a Spoon record; the problem is that it’s not a very good one. You’d have to go back to the daring, equally uneven Kill the Moonlight to hear something as infuriating as this. Sequencing, not production, stops Transference in its tracks.

Spoon buried the best songs in the middle third of the album, starting with “Written in Reverse” and ending with the plaintive strains of “Goodnight Laura,” a song that veers dangerously close to maudlin which wouldn’t be so bad if this weren’t a Spoon album.

We’ve come to expect great things. Their sound might be best described as Billy Joel songs as reimagined by Wire. Songs like “Sister Jack” and “The Underdog” burnished their reputation as a band on the cusp of greatness. There’s nothing of that caliber here.

Transference should’ve been Spoon’s magnum opus, the product of two decades worth of hard work from a band at the height of its power. Instead it’s the album you can tell the uninitiated they can safely ignore.

2009 was a disastrous year for me and music. I was really turned off to the possibility that I might like anything. I reverted to old habits, listening to a disproportionate amount of metal, without really exploring further. For someone who in the past prided himself on catholic taste, it was something of a disappointment. Worse, I’ve not felt a part of the music scene for a while now and that really troubles me. I mean, my title is music editor, right?

Without getting bogged down in all the hows and whys, I’m really excited for 2010 already. Two of my favorite bands, Spoon and Liars, have albums out this January and it’s the time of year where I obsess over these releases, often at the expense of ignoring worthy albums that come along later in the year’s promotional cycle.

I used to think it was stupid for bands to release albums this time of year. Boy, was I wrong! When LCD Soundsystem releases albums in the dead of winter, they capture more attention than they would if they tried to shoehorn their stuff into the March and October gluts. It’s the perfect time of year to really get familiar with a record. You’re trapped in the house or car anyway, so you might as well crank up the stereo.

I celebrate the new year in music by deleting everything in iTunes and starting over fresh. Right now I’m listening to Spoon, but I’ll be checking out new music from Yeasayer, Ted Leo, Liars, Blood Feathers, Vampire Weekend and Gil-Scott Heron (!) soon enough. What a great way to start 2010!