Spencer's back!  After too long a hiatus, Spencer and his bandmates are back with yet the latest installment of their quirky blend of jazz, 60s pop, surf music, and mariachi.  This album is a must in any collection where any of the above categories are found.  That said, this album has taken a bit longer to grow on me than their previous ones.  As another reviewer noted, this one has a somewhat darker feeling to it - still upbeat, just not quite AS upbeat as their earlier albums, and a bit more introspective.  I could attribute all that to the long layoff and the change in band personnel.  But all in all, it's a worthy album and I am thrilled they're back!  I'm waiting impatiently for their next effort...  (Also hoping they'll play a few gigs in Northern California soon... :)
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This is the kind of perfection that I lovingly refer to as "swing your pigtails music." If you don't have hair long enough to sport your own, just imagine that kind of spazzy, head-twirling, whole-body flailing and then imagine the music that perfectly captures every delicious little eccentricity and every morsel of irreverent joy...and you've got something like Spencer the Gardener. This delightful, quirky pop gem seems to simultaneously encompass a quality of They Might Be Giants, Squeeze and some hybrid of carnival craze. Any way you size it up, it's extremely fun and beautifully nerdy.
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Spencer the Gardener's latest CD is filled with a surprising array of sounds besides the party-pop/Latin-inspired grooves for which they are loved. Long-time group members such as the incomparable trumpeter Nate Birkey join relative newcomers like Brett Larsen on accordion to, Yes, play a few surfy and carefree tunes (that make you want to stick your hand out a moving car and do the wave) and the obligatory song in Spanish-- I think it's a conjunto. But a sweeping piano interlude? Who figured Spencer knew such melancholy?

And is this a concept album? The title Lulu is not just a woman's name but connotes seduction and trouble; all but a couple of the songs clearly focus on a woman, or the idea or one, or an aspect of woman. In the opener Barnitz admits in "Christine" that "he leads ten different lives," which is an excellent preview of what's to come. Consider the personal connection the singer and listener feels to the happy Christine, the un-named mantrap of "& Go Crazy"—whom I think best represents Lulu—the abandoning lover in "Tragedy of Dreaming," and so forth.

The musicianship throughout is spot on—the horns on virtually every track are completely reliably terrific. Vocals are warm and alive, unadorned. "& Go Crazy" makes me wish I could cha cha along to playful horns à la Cake, yet the song is moody and wistful. We are enchanted, just as our hapless subject is, by the siren in this song. Lyrics steer further into melancholy for a slow-dancer, the down-tempo and practically folky "Tragedy of Dreaming," where it's mused with regret, "I always thought you'd marry me…," amidst classic trumpet and jazzy, delicate bass. 

"Nice Girl" is as unexpected as it is memorable. Harpsichord? Scratching? Accordion nestles in perfectly, but segues into the nutty bridge. A smattering of noise-makers and other unidentifiables tinkle amid expert percussion and Sarah Frascella's backing vocals spinning like a slightly warped 78. This is not a bad thing. I think it's a likely single—contemporary, cool and exceptionally catchy.

Barnitz changes things up with breathy, baritone almost spoken vocals for "Why Did I Let You (back in my life)," something we've all related to. This gets a bit more 60's and loungy, a territory old Spencer records show he knows intimately. Lovely choruses and a bridge that lilts, "the only thing that I want is to fall straight into you," is literally bittersweet: it makes you sigh, and sort of smile at the same time. The vocal layers do well here, Barnitz showcasing some of his originality. His voice isn't the technically perfect kind but he's a natural storyteller.

In "Yea Y Yea," the mellow jazzy guitar intro gives way to more 60's-ish pop. I love the bridge, which to me perfectly sums up the feel of this record:

"In the scheme of life, I live mine
Nothing really seems secure
I throw my hands in the air
For pure joy and despair"

This leads into the saxophonist's turn to shine and get a great solo out. There's possibly a well-placed vibe in the background, else a nice keyboard—overall really well orchestrated. It's fitting when Barnitz sings, "I feel like I'm living in a movie… don't know how it ends or what happens to me," because this song would be at home in some vintage Peter Sellers flick, but is not overdone. It feels genuine: more novel than novelty.

The highlight of "Denise" is how several lovely guitar lines intertwine: the accents of a warm tremolo and other ethereal doodles with the main acoustic in the verses that has an almost Love & Rockets feel. A lower guitar, perhaps a baritone, rounds out the choruses, in which you hardly notice the meaning of the words, "the day before we met, a day which I regret," because you are just grooving. "Can't Go In," another unexpected piece, is part free jazz, part spaghetti western, with haunting sax, muted trumpet, military snare, and the rappy whispers of something like MC 900 ft Jesus.. This song builds into a maelstrom of noise, too, intriguing and spy-fabulous.

At first I found "There Goes Nicole" an even match to its bookend at the beginning of the record, more of the Spencer I'd become familiar with over the years. Nice. Fun. Generally happy. The song seemed like a so-so closer, save the wonderful café style accordion, except as proven several times over on this album, Man can Spencer ever write a memorable bridge or two. Beautiful and fleeting, one ends with:

"And so remember me, with no promises,
'Cause promises were only meant
To break your heart in two"

And segues to a break/monolog that would be at home in a 50's ballad:

"I remember one night in particular…
The night sky swirling all around
And the stars were glistening in her eyes… he wouldn't trade it for the world."

Maybe I’m just feeling exceptionally bittersweet myself these days, but this-- and the record as a whole—is so damn moving, especially on further listens. It's our great fortune that drummer/percussionist Cougar Estrada encouraged Barnitz—who has plenty of other musical projects, as well—to put together Spencer the Gardener again for another album. Let's enjoy it as long as we can.
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The disc begins with some patented Spencer Cali-pop about a girl named “Christine.” “California drifting and driving with the windows down,” begins the tune about an itinerant free spirit. The CD’s second track, “& Go Crazy,” is a great Latin-sounding salsa number driven by long-time band member Nate Birkey’s smokin’ horn. “Tragedy Of Dreaming” delivers the album’s first ballad, a somber lament about love lost. 
	Compared to preview Spencer efforts, this album is much more introspective and dark.
	By the fourth song — “Nice Girl” — the CD has turned artsy and psychedelic, tripping off into a sound effects-laden soundscape punctuated by Birkey’s sharp horn. The song begins with what sounds like harpsichord and congas before Birkey’s horn paints a faintly Latin riff as a lead-in to Spencer’s cooing vocals, “What’s a nice girl like you, doing in a place like this?” It’s vaguely sinister despite the catchy chorus.
	The title of another ballad pretty much sums up its dark mood: “Why Did I Let You (back in my life).” But the very next track, “Hay Cariño,” is a Mexican-style polka replete with accordion and Spanish lyrics — destined to be a classic Spencer party song.
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