A Spoonful of sugar

Few bands are as consistently rewarding as Spoon. They always manage to deliver catchy hooks yet never give in to the temptation to shell out tired pop cliches. Their newest album, “Transference,” is no exception.

Spoon’s last album, “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga,” had plenty of standout tracks but occasionally suffered from patches of unevenness. “Transference” has an almost perfect flow; each song seems to melt into the next. Although there’s no overarching theme to “Transference,” few albums reward listening in sequence as much as this one.

New wave influences can be felt on “Who Makes Your Money” and “Out Go the Lights,” while “Written in Reverse” has a chugging, piano-driven funk. Britt Daniel’s layered, out-of-time vocals give the song a schizophrenic feel.

This album won’t cause madness, but it might be intoxicating.