Spoon - Transference poill

They would have a ridiculously strong greatest hits.

― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, June 18, 2019 12:52 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You spoke it into existence!

https://pitchfork.com/news/spoon-announce-greatest-hits-album-share-new-song-no-bullets-spent-listen/

Excellent.

In the streaming era, though, do we need greatest hits compilations? Serious question. Maybe for another thread.

Don’t love “Got Nuffin” as the Transference choice, and there’s one too many from They Want My Soul

that's got at least 3 songs in common with what I'd come up with so good job i guess

xp I imagine this is mainly for vinyl purchasers

Not sure they're taking advantage of the CD format here LOL. and where is Jonathon Fisk, The Beast and Dragon, Adored, Sister Jack and Trouble Comes Running?

I could've sworn "They Want My Soul" and "New York Kiss" were singles.

also bummer that they're not acknowledging the real early stuff, 'metal detektor' would at least make the cut on my POXII

Looks like one of those comps where 'greatest hits' = 'songs that have been licensed the most'

the new song sounds like a ga ga ga ga ga outtake. it's alright

i'm seeing them next month with Beck...interestingly i did both the Spoon artist poll and the Beck artist poll on ILM and Spoon got more ballots. not sure what that means but threw it out there as i just looked. Beck is obviously way bigger.

― Bee OK, Tuesday, June 18, 2019 8:07 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thinking about checking out this tour too in August, let us know how it goes.

I always rate their classic album run as starting with A Series of Sneaks, shame they couldnt find a slot for one of those tracks.

I think at one point in time they would have been served well by a comp of their EPs & non-album singles, I rate the Soft Effects EP pretty high. But it seems like they stopped doing those after a certain point, and the moment's probably passed for people who would be interested in hearing pre-Gimme Fiction material from them.

I imagine this is mainly for vinyl purchasers

Yup. It would have been nice to have a more substantial CD version (or 2LP option). I don't have any Spoon on vinyl but I'd consider shelling out for a decent comp; this is a little too skinny.

not to mention "The Underdog" and "Got Nuffin'" wouldn't have made my cut.

They couldn’t do a greatest hits without The Underdog

This is great and probably how a lot of us come to love The Cure and New Order.

The idea of doing a best-of came to us a couple times,” Britt Daniel said in a statement. “First I wasn’t sure how I felt about it but at some point I remembered that when I got my first Cure record it was Standing on a Beach. When I got my first New Order record, it was Substance. That was how I met those bands, and I moved backwards from there but I still listen to those comps. I love a greatest hits LP when it’s done well. It can be a thing unto itself.”

Later this year, Spoon are heading out on tour with Beck and Cage the Elephant.

They should have called it Got Any Coke? The Very Best of Spoon

Found an old "Best-Of" tracklist I proposed back in 2014 (hey, I matched the first track):

https://i.imgur.com/oh9PuhD.jpg

mine would be something like

metal detektor
everything hits at once
jonathon fisk
paper tiger
the beast and dragon adored
you got yr cherry bomb
finer feelings
out go the lights
inside out
do you
can i sit next to you
tear it down

I'm listening to old Spoon now on headphones, just heard "Metal Detektor" -- it's such a f'in good song...

it's a lot simpler than what came after but so effective

same goes for 'advance cassette'

Circling back to the thread topic -- Transference is actually my favorite Spoon album, though I don't think many of the tracks work so well in isolation (except "Trouble Comes Running" -- which is something of an atypical Spoon song, and an all-time rocker, IMO ).

yeah agreed it's not much of a singles record

so:

Girls Can Tell - 1
Kill the Moonlight - 1
Gimme Fiction - 2
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - 3
Transference - 1
They Want My Soul - 3
Hot Thoughts - 1
New Song - 1

they should have spread it out or had a second CD/Record like other have said. way too much is missing, like only one song from Kill the Moonlight really?

"Got Nuffin" is great, full of hooks, don't get the indifference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhS7OS1WcmU

We should poll this.

I haven't really kept up since Telephono -- is it wrong to think "Don't Buy the Realistic" should have been included?

This thread revival sent me back on a Spoon kick, revisiting most of their stuff. For me, they're one of those bands that have a few great tracks per album (see my above playlist!), and the rest I can do without... the exception is Transference. There's something about this album that makes it extremely "sticky" for me... every track keeps me hooked in. It's full of all these pleasurable moments and musical ideas -- in particular, terrific guitar parts throughout.

I remember playing the CD for the first time, and snapping to attention when that gtr lines comes in in "Who Makes Your Money" (at around 1:38; you know the one) -- I was like, "Oh damn... this is gonna be one of those albums."

Also, "The Mystery Zone" is their only "funky" song where the "funkiness"really works for me... I've already praised "Trouble Comes Running" to the rafters (above)... etc.

It really has a different sound from all their other Merge albums. I can't really put my finger on why -- many of its elements appear elsewhere, as well -- but even the usual "stiffness" and not-quite-"rock" feeling of Eno's drumming doesn't become tiring to me on this one. It's almost like Transference was recorded by a somehow better, cooler, more interesting band than the other albums... or there was just something special in the water this time, I dunno.

Transference, to me, feels like a return to the Spoon of A Series of Sneaks. More restless, noisier, stranger production choices. A little more of a sketchbook feel. I don't think it's a coincidence that it's their first self-produced album, and their first without Mike McCarthy to reign in their weirder tendencies.

That's the Spoon I like. To me, it'll always be: 1/2. Sneaks/Telephono, 3/4. Girls Can Tell/Kill the Moonlight, 5. Telephono ... then everything else.

So to answer xpost's question: No, not at all. Same goes for "All the Negatives" and "Plastic Mylar"

Did you mean 1/2. Sneaks/Transference? If you did I totally agree

Ga Ga and Transference are where I amicably parted ways with Spoon, I like them both fine but they seemed to have pushed their sound as far out as it could go with Gimme Fiction imho, everything after that has seemed like variations on a theme.

Dunno why hot thoughts is so underrated here. Album effing grooves imo

It's one of my favourites of theirs. Never listened to A Series of Sneaks and Telephono though.

Did you mean 1/2. Sneaks/Transference? If you did I totally agree

― nate woolls, Monday, June 24, 2019 1:40 AM (six hours ago)

No, sorry, I typo'd. I meant: 1/2. Sneaks/Telephono. 3/4. Girls/Kill. 5. Transference.

Admittedly, I should probably revisit Telephono. It's been a long time.

https://www.stereogum.com/2069817/spoon-transference-turns-10/franchises/the-anniversary/

hard to believe the last "beginning of a new decade" was ten years ago.

this album is great, the problem is it followed the three headed beast.

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/shoegaze-cult-heroes-drop-nineteens-discuss-5-albums-that-influenced-their-first-lp-in-30-years/

Greg Ackell – 5 Albums that helped shape Drop Nineteens’ Hard Light

Spoon – Transference

Spoon. Could have picked any one of their albums as an inspiration for Hard Light. I also could have made this list five Spoon albums, because there’s no band I listen to or study more. But then I’d have to leave five Spoon albums out. Britt sounds a little exasperated on this one, coming down from heights of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga probably. And it’s his least favorite Spoon album. He does seem a little lost. But it’s a very honest album (as a result?). It’s still the only album they self-produced. That line “Times that we met before we met”-just smart as hell. “Out Go the Lights” and “Nobody Gets Me But You” have the kind of outros that make outro heavy bands (like my own) British racing green with envy. It’s hard to make a great album, not sure I’ve made one yet. Now imagine making TEN albums without any being the slightest bit short of great. They didn’t even slip one mediocre one in. Spoon.

I think I own a Drop Nineteen album but never really warmed up to them too much. Anyways, found this and agree with his take.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdMI5w_RVLI