Spencer, We Built This Mountain Just to See the Sunrise, 2016

Album Review

By Henry Lipput

No album I've heard in the last few years rocks as much as Spencer's latest release We Built This Mountain Just To See The Sunrise. There are terrific hooks and guitars a-plenty as well as a real sense of dynamics.

Spencer is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and We Built This Mountain is their fourth album. The deep-voiced lead vocals by Leo Niessner can remind you of Nick Cave or even Johnny Cash; but the overall album sound most reminds me of one of my all-time favorites, Liberty Horses' 1993 Joyland.

There's a real commitment in the band's playing, a take-no-prisoners attitude on songs like the openers "Hidden From The Sun" and "Through Your Head" (with chiming guitars that lead into buzzing guitars that lead into acoustic guitars).

Things quiet down (just a bit) on the next two songs. "Utopia" has the feel of late-period Roxy Music with Niessner sounding like Bryan Ferry, and there are swell bass and guitar lines that could have been on that band's Avalon album. And like most of the songs on We Built This Mountain, the choruses become big productions just inviting sing-alongs. "On A Wire" is a slow keeper with a lovely, subtle guitar riff behind the melody line that becomes more prominent as the song progresses and plays musical hide-and-seek with the rest of the guitars in the mix.

The pop in the rock pokes out its head in "Saturday Shoes"” It seems that most of us can relate to a situation where it's "like Sunday mornings in Saturday shoes" after an adult sleepover. The song has an 80's feel (but in a good way), a terrific chorus and big middle eight (again), and closes with that chiming guitar (again).

The 7-plus minute "Cruel" is a big, long, nearly symphonic piece with female backing vocals that reach to the sky (maybe to the top of the mountain the band built to see the sunrise), guitars that crunch and play against each other, and organs that swirl. Some of it has the feel of The Beatles' "I Want You [She‘s So Heavy]."

My favorite track is the last song "Harry's Still Sad." This pop masterpiece has everything a great song needs: a first-rate lead vocal, terrific guitar work (just wait for the solo at the end), some cheesy 80's organ, hooks galore, and a brilliant middle bit that builds and crests in a way that will give you goose bumps.

We Built This Mountain Just To See The Sunrise is out now on Ambulance Recordings.