It’s difficult to know what was going through Britt Daniel’s mind during the early months of 2009 as he wrote and recorded snippets of demos which would later form the majority of his group’s next album. As frontman and founding member of Austin indie-pop outfit SPOON, it would be fair to speculate that he was meticulously dissecting the group’s 2007 release, Gagagagaga, for the distinct element which set it apart from its five predecessors. Gagagagaga did, after all, bring the group huge commercial success and widespread exposure – a deserving reward for a group who had struggled to gain anything beyond niche critical acclaim since their founding in 1993. But then again, the fact that Spoon released so many stunning yet critically underachieving albums without ever shirking their musical identity shows that they never have been too worried about unearthing the secret to commercial recognition.
So it’s no surprise, ultimately, that their latest effort, Transference, departs somewhat from the slick charisma of Gagagagaga. The album offers tracks which are refined and raw – at points bordering on minimalism – allowing what sounds like aggression or simmering resentment on the part of Daniels to shine through without being drowned out by over-production. “The way a lot of these songs came about is that they were demos, and when that happens, it’s not going to be as ‘produced,’” says Jim Eno, the group’s drummer and, alongside Daniel, the only remaining founding member. “Whenever you want to work with a producer, and they hear a demo, they just want to re-record it. Britt was capturing great takes at his house by himself. Sonically, they were good, and we felt they needed to be used. We didn’t spend much time, relatively, in the studio, because we really wanted to use Britt’s stuff.”
Such a simple yet effective approach to writing and recording could explain much of Spoon’s appeal to listeners fed up with jumbled, over-rehearsed songwriting. “We have never really tended to come up with songs by ‘jamming.’ On this album in particular, I think we traded ‘feel’ for ‘slickness.’ I think ultimately this album just doesn’t have the machine sound of previous albums.”
But far from parting with every stylistic mantra the group had assumed in the past, Transference does, nonetheless, sound very much like a ‘Spoon’ album, despite those elements whose presence will undoubtedly take some fans and critics by surprise. “I think we do have a particular sound,” says Eno, speculatively, although his fans would never have considered it a point open to debate. “It’s pretty interesting, after seven records, to think that other bands sound like us. We don’t try consciously to have a ‘sound,’ it’s just elements that we prefer. It’s Britt’s songs and Britt’s vocals, which is the obvious part. But it’s also about having tight drums and sparse arrangements. Spoon have only ever used things if they add to a song. There’s never any miscellaneous stuff in our work.”
Spoon plays at the Groovin’ the Moo festival on Sunday May 9 at the University of Canberra. Tickets through Moshtix.
