| Spectral Worship | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Guv'ner | ||||
| Released | 1998 | |||
| Studio | Rare Book Room, Williamsburg, NY | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Label | Merge Records | |||
| Producer | Nicolas Vernhes, Charles Gansa | |||
| Guv'ner chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| NME | |
Spectral Worship is a studio album by the indie rock band Guv'ner, released in 1998 on Merge Records. The album contains a cover of "Jealous Guy" by John Lennon, re-titled "Jealous Girl".
Critical reception
The Washington Post thought that "singer-guitarist Charles Gansa, bassist-singer Pumpkin Wentzel and drummer Danny Tunick don't demolish traditional song form, but they do like to beat it up a bit." Philadelphia City Paper called the album "a charming swirl of their cheeky, off-key melodicisms and experimental tweeks and wonks ... Even bassist Pumpkin Wentzel's conceptually ill-conceived cover of John Lennon's 'Jealous Guy' works with a little chutzpah." NME concluded that the album "chews on exactly the same pop bubblegum as their previous releases with a nerdy hook here, a quirky instrument there (castanets, Moog, Spanish guitars, etc) but, unlike 1996’s The Hunt, it chooses to hide its considerable light under a bushel of obscurity."
AllMusic wrote that "the album is a frequently brilliant combination of acoustic guitars, assorted tone waves and other varied sounds, drawing them together into minimal but highly dynamic and well-constructed pieces in a beautifully rustic, desolate ballad style."
Track listing
- "Spectral Worship"
- "Chereza"
- "Love the Lamp"
- "Wounded Birds and Vampires own the Edge"
- "Anaphelact"
- "Coozwax"
- "Jealous Girl" (Lennon)
- "Time Rarely Stand Still"
- "Anything"
- "Difficulty in Openness"
- "Someone Else"
- "Spectral Workshop"
- "Welcome"
Instrumentation and Personnel
- Charles Gansa (guitar, vocals)
- Pumpkin Wentzel (bass, vocals)
- Danny Tunick (drums, marimba)
- Cindy Greene (whistling)
- Nicky Furnace (backing vocals, handclaps)
- So Yong Kim (tongue claps)
- Michael Rohatyn (vocals)
References
- ^ "Spectral Worship - Guv'ner | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" – via www.allmusic.com.
- ^ "Planet Of The Wolves". NME. September 12, 2005.
- "Guv'ner Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic.
- "On its third album, 'Spectral Worship', Guv'ner also alternates between soft and loud..." The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
- "Lilys/Guv'ner". mycitypaper.com.