*** Guv'ner

SPECTRAL WORSHIP

(Merge)

Halfway through the recording of Guv'ner's third album, Spectral Worship, principal members Charles Gansa and Pumpkin Wentzel tied the knot. And if the New York couple hadn't been shy about singing unabashed love songs to each other before, now they're practically inviting listeners into their bedroom. On "Love the Lamp," Gansa uses the appliance as a metaphor for his wife's genitalia ("A light goes on and I know she is damp"), coyly couching the risqué metaphor in a cascade of plucked acoustic notes and soft flamenco shadings.

This peculiar song signals a musical evolution for this trio, who got their start playing sloppy downtown punk, then offered up cloyingly clever indie pop on 1996's The Hunt. Now, Guv'ner saunter from moog-dominated space-outs ("Spectral Worship") to blues-inflected balladry ("Time Rarely Stands Still") to Sonic Youth-style harmonic jams ("Difficulty in Openness," complete with Wentzel's approximation of a Kim Gordon spoken-song rant). It doesn't all work -- Wentzel's gender tweaking of an oft-covered Lennon tune goes awry on "Jealous Girl" -- but it's refreshing to hear Guv'ner toying with hooks and melodies and drawing so candidly on the personal.

-- Richard Martin