This time, the track getting the visual treatment is “Nobody Gets Me But You” a classic Spoon track that features amazingly catchy rhythms (as always) and a raw, stripped-down sound that adds grit.

The video is also appropriately low-tech. Britt Daniels explains that it is influenced from his experience at New York’s Cake Shop, which is a less than ideal concert locale. The video is filmed as if you are watching the band on the TV by the bar.

Check out “Nobody Gets Me But You” right here!

based on watching footage of bands as they’re caught on the surveillance-style cameras at new york’s super-narrow venue the cake shop, spoon unveil their new video for transference track “nobody gets me but you.”

- sunbear

The answer – I believe – is a step backward. And that’s not a negative thing.

Sure, GaX5 was a wonderful album, but it felt too bouncy for Spoon the majority of the time. Other than “The Ghost of You Lingers”, experimentation within each track seemed lacking. Spoon’s odd sonic landscapes are some of my favorite things about their sound and Transference is definitely a return to this place. The album is aptly named too. You see, I think some of these songs may have originated as sketches of songs for Gimme Fiction; songs that were either scraped or unfinished by the time that album was released. After letting them sit for a while, Britt came back to these musings and began to fill in the holes. In other words, these songs seem to have transferred from 2005 all the way to now, developing along the way.

The first track on the album, “Before Destruction”, is a good example of this. Spoon sets it up immediately so we know that this album is not like their previous ones. The first time we hear Britt’s voice, we’re reminded of the less-than-stellar quality that Spoon often uses as a tool in their tracks. Britt’s voice is crackly, far away … and right as we hit the one minute mark – there is a switch, a production change in the music. As a good friend put it, the sound becomes smooth – an adjective not often associated with this band. And the more you delve into the album, you realize that there’s no interruptions during tracks with gems accidentally recorded in the studio, no sonic fuzz drowning out Britt’s vague lyrics, none of it. It’s just the music, just the songs. A smoother Spoon.

That doesn’t mean the band isn’t still rocking. Tracks like “Is Love Forever?” and “Got Nuffin’” (released this past summer as a single) would be hard not to bounce around the room with, but these tracks are balanced with much more introspective ones – a return to Britt’s uncertainty in his own skin a la Gimme Fiction‘s “Was It You?”, “They Never Got Me”, and “The Delicate Place”. A good example of this is the one-two punch of “Goodnight Laura” into “Out Go The Lights” – both tracks somberly drone through some interesting and deep lyrics, the type of lyrics Britt probably felt odd playing with at first. But their spot-on tracks, my two favorites. And maybe that’s because it’s new, it’s fresh. Spoon has always had a way of taking their stylings and mutating them ever so slightly to find something just different enough that their sound never becomes stale.

But, I must warn, this album is a grower. I loved it on first listen, got a little dragged down the second and third times I went through it. From there though, I promise, it’ll just keep growing on you.

- Conor Patrick

****
4 out of 5 stars

STANDOUT TRACKS:

Is Love Forever? – Who Makes Your Money – Goodnight Laura – Out Go The Lights

Spoon: Written In Reverse – The lead single off Transference

Stream Spoon’s new album Transference in its entirety on NPR’S Exclusive First Listen