Most helpful customer reviews
|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
random spirit lover, Jan 18 2008
Between Wolf Parade, Swan Lake, and Frog Eyes, Sunset Rubdown's Spencer Krug may be the most prolific indie rocker this side of Robert Pollard. But you'd never know from his latest full-length, which features melodies so architecturally complex and harmoniously joined that the boundaries between them become erased. With its exquisite attention to detail and layers of depth which emerge over multiple listens, Random Spirit Lover may be one of the most toiled over releases of the year-- and in line with 2005's Shut Up I Am Dreaming, as well as his work with Wolf Parade, it establishes Krug as one of independent music's brightest talents.
|
|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
The indie-rocker has sung, Oct 12 2007
Spencer Krug is insane. In the best possible way of course.
And Sunset Rubdown has expanded their sound in every direction, with the gloriously dense third album "Random Spirit Lover." While their music hasn't changed drastically in sound, it's grown deeper and denser and much, much weirder -- in fact, it may be too dense to hear in one sitting.
It opens with a sprightly tangle of growling squealing guitar, energetic piano, bells and blurry synth. "He was a man of many nations, had a hundred souls and a hundred to go/He was a man of many nations, two hearts, two hands, it's a slippery slope," Krug yowls over the bouncy, cluttered melody. "It was the tender mending of this slender gown/that brought me bending to the ground..."
You might want to just turn it off after that, and take a little while to digest it. Or you can move on to the tremulous, mournfully quirky "Magic vs. Midas," which serves as a little oasis after the craziness of the first song.
But things don't really get any simpler after that -- we have twinkly marches, ominous indie-rock with a chorale, stately crescendos of ringing guitars, rippling dark electronica, and cascading eruptions of crazy harps and keyboard. Occasionally, they mix in a gentle echoing experimental song, a fuzzfolk pop song, or a tinkl little ballad like "Stallion."
You can really tell in "Random Spirit Lover" that Sunset Rubdown is no longer merely a side band for people from Pony Up, Wolf Parade, et cetera. Their music has really blossomed into a dense, intense combination of experimental music (a la Animal Collective) and pop tunes. You can dance to it, but it might make you dizzy.
Each melody is made of a bunch of loosely intertwined instrumentals -- winding riffs that vary from ringing to fuzzy, solid drums and fast-moving piano setting the beat. And the whole thing is wound in a dizzying, colourful blanket of shimmering glockenspiel, harmonica, and swells of windy keyboard.
Krug is responsible for most of the vocals, and it takes a little while to get used to his yowling, dramatic voice. But he sings lyrics of staggering lyrical beauty ("You say it's the hair of ghosts/So I say it's the white hair of Poseidon/Ebbing in the tide in some dead sea"), and more than a little tenderness.
Even more striking, those lyrics are crammed with symbolism and dreamlike imagery -- leopards, virgins, snow and ice, the Shroud of Turin, and lots of diamonds and violins. There are plenty of repeating motifs in these songs, tangling them almost into a theme album.
Your ears may overflow while you're listening to "Random Spirit Lover," but the rich experimental pop and astounding lyrics make a wonderful way to be overwhelmed. Definitely a must-listen.
|
|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
Random Spirit Lover, Sep 28 2007
Random Spirit Lover by Sunset Rubdown comes on the heels of three sensational lp's from the Wolf Parade Camp: Apologies to the Queen Mary by Wolf Parade, Shut Up I am Dreaming by Sunset Rubdown and Plague Park by The Handsome Furs. Spencer released another solo Sunset lp with which I am not familiar. Collectively and uniquely these albums constitute some of the most impressive rock, meshed with fringe electro and synth elements, offerings of the current decade. Random Spirit Lover is, naturally, an extension of Sunset Rubdown's previous album. Yet while it invokes the same musical and thematic forces of Shut Up..., it is not a mere repetition or reformulation of that album. It takes the epic grandiosity that exists in its predecessor and stretches it into new limits. It sounds as if Spencer Krug, the primary songwriter / lead vocalist / keyboardist for the band, has been listening to more classical piano, though this is meant only as an accentuation of form and not as a genuine speculation. The operatic sweep of the album is overwhelming, built upon with a perfect sequencing that should appeal especially to avid makers of mixes. The opening track "Mending of the Gown" establishes the rhythmic energy that is characteristic of Sunset, rapid multi-layered shifts set in a progressive crescendo that lead into a composed denouement and seamless transition. It is the perfect opening track. Track Three, "Up on your Leopard, Upon the End of your Feral Days" is an early peak. The lyrical continuity from "The Men are Called Horseman There" is compelling for fans of the band, self-referentiality being one of the most impressive conceptual features of contemporary music. Some of the parts of this song recall Wolf Parade, but overall it is too disjointed and lacking Wolf Parades's distinct guitar sound to make too much of this comparison. It is one of the best songs on the album and well placed to engage the listener early on. Next is "The Courtesan has Sung", another brilliant track. Providing a brief retreat from the energy of "Up on your Leopard in its introduction, it leads into more mania with an eclectically melodic chorus that, while slightly reminiscent of "Shut Up I am Dreaming of Places Where Lovers Have Wings", is a new direction for the band. Sunset is built upon experimentation and continues to be fuelled by this. The album remains strong throughout the middle, with the eerie "Colt Stands Up, Grows Horns" progressing into "Stallion", the true center. This song, nearing seven minutes in length, captures most of all the expressive weight of what is being performed. Brooding, somber and filled with pensive piano it is the hinge upon which the climax rests. Here is where, perhaps falling prey to romantic or idealistic notions, transcendence begins to be felt. One is no longer listening to music, they are being swept away on a wave of engulfing proportions, which leads into the climax. "For the Pier (And Dead Shimmering)" is the first part of this climax. It is not the climactic essence of the climax, if you will, but its majesty is enthralling and inextricable from furor that comprises track nine. Track nine, the very same number that emblazoned the epic quality of Spencer on Apologies..., ""I'll Believe in Anything". This tradition is continued on Random with "Taming of the Hands that Came Back to Life". It is an unfettered declaration of the primordial. Guitar is allowed to reign in ways that it never has on Sunset, mixed perfectly with adaptive beats. The final three tracks round out the album effectively, with "Child-Heart Losers" providing a beautiful juxtaposition of the previous album's close. The album is lyrically driven by the ugliness and compulsive desire of human attachment, amidst other things. It is dark without being fatalistic. As a songwriter, Spencer comes across as much like a composer as anything. His songs are so layered and frenetic. They are tremendously ambitious in this way and yet the risk pays off, because they are brilliantly constructed. Arguably, in the most open sense of the word, this is the greatest album to come from Wolf, Parade, The Handsome Furs, or Sunset Rubdown. Of, course, none of this is meant to be taken too seriously. It is merely the exuberance of a fan.
|
|
|
|
