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.)
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.
Call it surprising/delightful, or call it thrilling/glorious. Either way, Dragonslayer‘s pretty great.
Dragonslayer is a shockingly good record, but it’s no surprise that things ended up this way.
Give it a few spins. Take Dragonslayer for a drive, play it at a party. I think you’ll be surprised.
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.
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.
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
1 | Silver Moons 4:45 | |
2 | Idiot Heart 6:09 | |
3 | Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh! 5:23 | |
4 | Black Swan 6:54 | |
5 | Paper Lace 3:48 | |
6 | You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II) 5:43 | |
7 | Nightingale / December Song 5:34 | |
8 | Dragon's Lair 10:28 | 80 |
#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 |