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Critic Reviews
100
The practical, prosaic, documentarian's way to open a review of the new Sunset Rubdown album would be to note that it’s largely recorded live, and eschews the multiple overdubs of its predecessors, Shut Up, I Am Dreaming and Random Spirit Lover, all the better to reflect the stamping-flailing, wuh-huh-hooing bacchanal
of the live-shows (and damn is there a lot of wuh-huh-hooing, when it comes to Sunset Rubdown.)
15y
100
Gone, for the most part, are the experiments in atonality that marked previous outings, particularly 2007’s Random Spirit Lover. In their stead are gorgeous melodies and intricate song structures that demand multiple listens to even begin to comprehend.
15y
90
After all the orchestrated chaos within the album’s depths, an upbeat groove leads us out, and caps off one of the finer Krug penned efforts to date. Keep ‘em coming, sir.
15y
90
Call it surprising/delightful, or call it thrilling/glorious. Either way, Dragonslayer‘s pretty great.
15y
84
Dragonslayer is a shockingly good record, but it’s no surprise that things ended up this way.
14y
83
The brooding, cryptic world of Spencer Krug is more straightforward on the latest Sunset Rubdown LP, the easiest to digest of the prolific writer's career.
15y
82
Give it a few spins. Take Dragonslayer for a drive, play it at a party. I think you’ll be surprised.
12y
80
As carefully crafted as it is, this is the group's most accessible record yet. And it's a damn fine one at that.
15y
80
The songs are as intricate and delightfully off-kilter as ever. If the arrangements are less layered and the pacing more relaxed, Dragonslayer is nevertheless a dynamic album.
2y
80
Whether Dragonslayer is as great as any other work is almost irrelevant; it is great and it is grand, and it is all too welcome.
15y
80
It feels almost like a regression from 2007’s effusive ‘Random Spirit Lover’ but is maybe the first time the band have produced a straightforward rock record. And it’s bloody fantastic to hear.
11y
80
More grandiose wordplay and bent indie rock from one of the genre’s finest voices.
15y
80
At only nine tracks ... even a few soft spots cast a distracting glare over the rest of the album — a liability that may not hamstring Dragonslayer’s ambitions, but lends just enough to curb Krug’s better instincts.
1y
80
Dragonslayer confirms Spencer Krug’s still got that killer touch.
12y
76
All in all, anyone who was expecting Dragonslayer to sound like the new Mastodon album might be disappointed. Otherwise, this record will please fans and newcomers alike.
12y
70
Krug’s apparent desire to pursue every possible idea is admirable in one sense, but it also serves as evidence that he’d benefit from an editor.
8y
65
It is an album that is perhaps simplest to discuss in terms of both its credits and debits, its yin and its yang - of which there is much.
11y
61
It's ... unclear if this Dragonslayer has the necessary conviction to take on the conniving, fire-breathing beast in question.
15y
60
Even with only eight tracks, “Dragonslayer” gets a bit exhaustive midway through.
10y
60
By using fewer overdubs, Sunset Rubdown is actually undermining its strengths of expectation-defying structures and lavishly decorated arrangements.
Print Only
2y
60
Their grandiose Baron Muchhausen indie rock does tend to veer toward indulgent.
Print Only
2y
60
Overall, these tracks feel more like the B sides of Random Spirit Lover, maybe the acoustic B sides, the tracks that didn't quite make the cut but would definitely be of interest to ardent fans.
15y
I was super into this album back in the summer of 2013. I had gotten into Wolf Parade and Spencer Krug and all the related Canadian indie projects... Frog Eyes, Handsome Furs, Destroyer, Swan Lake... anyway, this album I connected with the most (outside of Apologies for the Queen Mary). I mean the lyrics are all over the place, fantastical, deeply gnarled metaphors, etc., but there's something both melancholic and epic and triumphant about that. The tracks really do feel like they're part of ... read more
Of the creative forces in Wolf Parade, Spencer Krug has always been the one with the artiest, most progressive musical instincts, and his side projects have always indulged his every whim in a way that the relatively accessible Wolf Parade could not. This has led to an inevitably hit-or-miss solo discography, but 2009’s “Dragonslayer,” Krug’s final album under the Sunset Rubdown project, is pretty much all hits. “Dragonslayer” doesn’t so much soften ... read more
even outside of Wolf Parade Spencer Krug manages to create this gigantic sound with incredible instrumentation
This album's sound clicked so much with me, silver moons and you go on ahead are masterpieces of indie rock!
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Track List
| 1 | Silver Moons 4:45 | 93 |
| 2 | Idiot Heart 6:09 | 91 |
| 3 | Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh! 5:23 | 88 |
| 4 | Black Swan 6:54 | 90 |
| 5 | Paper Lace 3:48 | 84 |
| 6 | You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II) 5:43 | 90 |
| 7 | Nightingale / December Song 5:34 | 88 |
| 8 | Dragon's Lair 10:28 | 87 |
Total Length: 48 minutes
Year End Lists
| #4 | / | A.V. Club |
| #10 | / | Cokemachineglow |
| #11 | / | Pretty Much Amazing |
| #13 | / | Stereogum |
| #21 | / | No Ripcord |
| #23 | / | Drowned in Sound |
| #27 | / | Beats Per Minute |
| #34 | / | Tiny Mix Tapes |
| #52 | / | PopMatters |
| #74 | / | Consequence of Sound |
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