SOUNDTRACK: SPOON-Transference (2010).
The first thing I think of when I think of this disc is staccato. I’ve read that the disc sounds like a demo, which I don’t quite agree with, although it does sound very raw and spare (in the way the Peter, Bjorn and John’s Living Thing does).
Although the opener “Before Destruction” has a lot of guitars washing around, the dominant sound is a loud short chord and drum combination. And from the second song on pretty much, things get very chunky.
“Is Love Forever?” has a riff based on tight military beat with guitar chords that match. There’s very little in the way of extended notes or washes of sound. “Mystery Zone,” an insanely catchy little ditty, has a similar staccato/spare sound. Britt Daniel’s voice is pretty much the only instrument that holds a note for more than a beat. (That’s not literally true, but it seems like it). Meanwhile, “Who Makes Your Money” is all drum beats and single keyboard notes.
It’s surprising that this spare musical accompaniment works so effectively, but it does. Especially on “Written in Reverse” a predominantly pizzicato piano track that rocks in a maniacally-echoed fashion. Or even more so on the 5 minute “I Saw the Light” which is basically drums and a propulsive bass. There’s occasional guitar chords which build until the 2 minute mark, when a 3 minute minor chord piano & drum coda takes over.
“Good Night Laura” is a simple piano ballad (again with pizzicato piano chords), while the final song “Nobody Gets Me But You” is full of cacophonous piano runs, most of which sounding precariously on the verge of being random and out of tune, but which always manage to be weird and cool.
Spoon’s last album had a pretty big hit with “Don’t Make Me a Target” which was similar in style to these songs but which had more orchestration. These songs feel like an attempt to strip away as much as possible and see what remains. And I guess it’s a testament to the quality of the songs that it works.
[READ: December 1, 2010] This Isn’t What It Looks Like
Is it the nature of children’s books in the 21st century that they are all parts of a series? Do authors write singular books with no plan of a sequel? I don’t know. And I’m not sure that I mind all that much.
This is the fourth book in the “Secret” series, and Bosch hasn’t lost any steam or quality for this part of the saga. When we last left our heroes, Cass was in a “coma,” induced from eating a time traveling chocolate bar. Max-Ernest has more or less given up speaking (which is impossible for him) because he feels so guilty about encouraging Cass to eat the chocolate. And, Yo-Yoji, their erstwhile third member, is off in Japan with his family. What is M-E to do?
Luckily for M-E, an old friend has returned to school, and he’s causing quite a stir. Benjamin Blake (the awkward synesthetic artist from the first book) has returned from his finishing school. He is polished and refined, he uses words like “chum,” and people seem to be well, interested, in him. And most interesting of all (as only M-E knows), he seems to be able to read people’s minds! And that’s just what M-E was hoping to do with Cass while she’s in the coma.
For Cass, you see, is “living” in the past. In our time, she is in the coma, but her mind has traveled back in time to meet The Jester, the man who holds “The Secret” and the man who is her great- great- great- (etc) grandfather. She is fully conscious in Renaissance times. The big difference, though, is that she is invisible! And, in a wonderful publishing joke (the kind of thing that Bosch does so well) all of the chapters that are about Cass are listed as negative (so the book starts with Chapter “-Ten”). M-E’s chapters start at one, mind you, so you have positive and negative chapters which all converge at a hilarious interlude called Chapter Zero.
The bit about the Renaissance also works very well because their school is having its annual Renaissance Faire (I wish I went to THAT school!) which is sponsored by a theme restaurant which features jousting and medieval times (but which is not Medieval Times, ha ha–I love that everyone says how bad the burgers are but they love the experience). The Ren Faire is a wonderful plot set-up because with Cass lost in “real” Renaissance, the parallels to the Ren Faire are very clever and often very funny. (I also love that M-E keeps trying to explain that there is a big difference between Renaissance and Medieval but no one will listen).
And, indeed, cleverness is the word of the book (and the series). Bosch is having continued great fun with word play (and footnotes!). He also has some clever puzzles to solve. The biggest one is the “Hint to the Secret” that the Jester leaves for Cass (and which even a fortune teller tells her about). I was convinced I had the puzzle sorted out but I was wrong (and it was so obvious when it was revealed!). And, there’s also a revelation as to the true identity of Pseudonymous Bosch (not the real life author, but the “author” of the books). I had put a little of this together myself when reading the dialogue in M-E’s head. But I won’t spoil the revelation of that.
The only secret I will reveal is to say that this is not the final book in the series. For awhile it seemed like it was heading towards a conclusion. But as we dramatically learn, there will be more adventures to come. And that’s pretty cool.
I love an exciting series, but I especially love an exciting series that doesn’t talk down to its readers. The footnotes and clever games are very fun and thought-provoking (there’s even two emails that are written in code that you need to decipher (unless you cheat and look in the appendix). And speaking of the Appendix, there’s also a one-way staring contest and directions on how to make a camera obscura (which features in the book and seems like a fun project).
I honestly have no idea how nay books Bosch plans to write in this series (and I have no idea who Pseudonymous Bosch (the author) is for real. It’s all part of the mystery that I enjoy quite a lot.
This Spoon band has been mentioned several times over the last few weeks. Must get around to it. Any band with a Can connection is fine by me.
Isn’t ever band inspired by Can?
I like the last two spoon discs quite a lot. Don’t know thier earlier ones. Very minimalist.