Spoon’s “Transference” is their seventh studio album and their first true release under mainstream scrutiny. It’s never easy following up the best performance in a show. Their previous work, “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” was a massive critical and commercial success, not to mention brilliantly composed. They have established a reputation for high quality musical output, but the ride to indie stardom was certainly a bumpy one.

Spoon was formed in 1993 by lead singer/guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno in Austin, Texas. Their 1996 debut, “Telephono,” drew comparisons to Sonic Youth and the Pixies in its punk rock and indie influenced sound. Yet the band quickly grew into a genre of their own, signing to Elektra Records and releasing “A Series of Sneaks,” their major-label debut. Following disappointing sales, Spoon was dropped from the label and moved underground, releasing EPs and singles for several years. Since signing with North Carolina indie label Merge Records in 2001, the band has released four critically acclaimed albums, each outselling the last, culminating in “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” which debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard charts. Facing a burgeoning fan base and thrust into the spotlight, Spoon took several years and tempered expectations before releasing “Transference.”

It should be acknowledged that this album has several enjoyable offerings. There are a few moments that stand out among the 43 minutes of wandering explorations of mood, texture, and soundscape. “I Saw The Light” starts out as melancholy, shuffling rock, before abruptly taking a U-turn at the halfway mark into a taut, percussive dialogue between piano and guitar. Other highlights include the lead single “Got Nuffin,” a tambourine-tapping, drum-and-bass track in the vein of Beck or Radiohead, and “Is Love Forever?” one of the album’s many romantic lyrical endeavors, fraught with Eno’s bubbly drumming and Daniel’s choppy guitar rhythms.

Given the three-year wait, however, “Transference” is disappointingly bland. The all-important catchy hooks and sing-along choruses are conspicuously absent. The result is a stripped-down and meandering effort that resembles a bundle of hastily recorded studio jams. Spoon has always had that x-factor that makes their music extraordinarily easy to listen to, but, as much as “Transference” should be the culmination of a rapid rise to the top through songwriting maturity and creativity, it falls flat in excitement and fails to break new musical ground. Perhaps it was the high expectations or perhaps the band wanted to eschew the poppiness of “Ga,” but “Transference” is a musical lapse of an album with a majority of filler and a minority of quality.