Spoon's recordings are sometimes about pure studio construction, and other times about live performance energy concentrated in rudimentary parts. But, in either case, the importance of every guitar upstroke or single piano key being struck is highlighted by the stark quality of their recordings. Present on their new album, Transference, is the Beatle-esque stereo separation and spacious quality that has been a part of their sound from the beginning. Although this album is talked about as the first Spoon album to be produced completely by the band, drummer Jim Eno has been a part of the engineering and production of every one of their releases. Consequently, the band's new found "independence" hasn't changed the feel of this new batch songs markedly from their last few efforts. It's still straight rock music, driven by energy that comes more from measured placement of musical phrases than brute force.

Since 2002's Kill The Moonlight, Britt Daniel's vocal parts have become increasingly detached from their accompaniment and subject to treatment by effects and editing. The Live at Stubb's concert set that the band released last year gave a nice snapshot of his current ideology toward the atmospherics of his vocals. Even in concert, one can hear that the delay and other effects applied to Daniel's vocals are meticulously controlled and only triggered on certain key accents. On Transference, that approach is evident in a song like "Who Makes Your Money", a tune whose persistent beat may have a kindred spirit in "Don't You Evah" and "Was It You?" from albums past. The vocal refrain is sung repeatedly over the instrumental vamp, sometimes falling out of rhythm while being delayed and re-triggered. Also, both "Is Love Forever?" and "The Mystery Zone" feature abrupt edits. On the former, the vocal is cut mid-yowl as the band plays out the last few measures, while the latter stops short all together, again in the middle of a word.

There are many tracks on this album in the classic Spoon mold, like "Trouble Comes Running", which fits the bill right down to its ramshackle production. There are muffled acoustic guitars, fuzzy drums, bass panned hard to the left and a short stack of harmony vocals pushed high in the mix. Also, the album-closer "Nobody Gets Me But You" is one of a newer style of Spoon compositions that have been cropping up since Gimme Fiction's "I Turn My Camera On" — driven by a funky rhythm section and dusted with fluttery bits of discordant keys. The only jarring spot for me on the record is "Goodnight Laura", a lullaby that seems to feature Kermit the Frog humming a wordless melody under the chorus. Its heartfelt piano and perhaps overly-close vocals seem out of place next to the rest of an album whose songs make their mark with a firm hand rather than a feather touch.