Dragonslayer

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
Critic Score
Based on 22 reviews
2009 Ratings: #113 / 923
Year End Rank: #30
User Score
Based on 71 ratings
2009 Rank: #50
Liked by 8 people
June 23, 2009 / Release Date
LP / Format
Jagjaguwar / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Drowned in Sound

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.)

100
A.V. Club

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.

90
Consequence of Sound
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.
90
PopMatters

Call it surprising/delightful, or call it thrilling/glorious. Either way, Dragonslayer‘s pretty great.

84
Coke Machine Glow

Dragonslayer is a shockingly good record, but it’s no surprise that things ended up this way.

83
Pitchfork
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.
82
Pretty Much Amazing

Give it a few spins. Take Dragonslayer for a drive, play it at a party. I think you’ll be surprised.

80
Tiny Mix Tapes

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.

bitterblossom12
84

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

84

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

franz_biberkopf
86

Worst Track: Black Swan

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