Artist- Spoon
Album- Transference
Record Label- Merge Records
5 out 5 Pitchforks

It seems like most everyone these days know of Spoon. As of 2010, their career is going on 16 years and their music has appeared everywhere from movie soundtracks to video games to some of the most popular TV shows around. Yet their highest charting single peaked at No. 26, and not on the Hot 100, but on the secondary Alternative Song chart.

They’re one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the past decade, yet they’ve been outperformed on the charts by the likes of 3OH!3 and Lady Gaga — who, much like herpes, refuses to go away. By the way, thanks for all of your help unchaining that beast, Perez Hilton.

Digressions aside, Spoon has now sustained 16 long years despite never having that ever-elusive “breakthrough” song or album. What’s their recipe for success, you ask? Well, for starters, they’re good — and not just pretty good, but, like, really good.

Perhaps you could say they are a lot like LeBron James — they are in their prime, they have great album (or season) after great album, but they just haven’t won that championship and broken through to a whole new level of stardom. You know it’s coming, it’s just a matter of when. Their latest release, “Transference,” is their best shot to date at that next level of glory.

Simple sounds — a little drum and cymbal tapping, the soft strum of an acoustic guitar and a tasteful amount of feedback — open “Before Destruction” and begin the ride that is “Transference.” Rather than blowing the doors open during the opening track, Spoon chose to take it slow, let the anticipation build and let upbeat tracks like the jangly “Is Love Forever?” and the raucous “Written In Reverse” remind us all why this band is so special.

Part of what makes “Transference” so special is its lo-fi, minimalist approach undertaken when crafting each track — in spite of lo-fi production slowly becoming the indie equivalent of auto-tune. The approach adds a certain ambience to tracks like the brooding “Who Makes Your Money,” where singer Britt Daniel’s voice sounds restrained and distant.

Straight up, pull-no-punches rock n’ roll jams like “Trouble Comes Running” or “Got Nuffin” are left raw rather than gussied up by unnecessary production, and allow the band to pound away for three-plus minutes and allows these tunes to grow into two of the best tracks on “Transference.”

In a muscle-flexing display of versatility, “Goodnight Laura,” a majestic piano ballad, is thrown into the mix and then Spoon rounds out the album with the fantastic dance groove “Nobody Gets Me But You,” just to prove that no realm of music is off limits for this band.

Songs like these are what catapults Spoon into our consciousness and is what helps them sustain, despite being devoid of mainstream notoriety.

“Transference” is the first great album of 2010 and Spoon’s indifference to the world around them is what makes it so special. They made a gem of an album without pursuing that one hit song that has eluded them for so long and while many other bands would reek of desperation after sixteen years, Spoon rises above.

Chart placement is fleeting, but a good album will last forever and that is exactly what “Transference” is destined to do.

Reach the reporter at jdfourni@asu.edu