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Sunset Rubdown Random Spirit Lover Released in 2007 9.0/10 Styles Psychedelic Rock Experimental Rock Lo-Fi Song Highlights Up on Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days Winged/Wicked Things Stallion |
Last year's Shut Up I Am Dreaming, the second album for Sunset Rubdown (and the first to receive widespread attention and acclaim) was a notably solid album with some definite highlight moments, but overall it didn't quite feel cohesive and consistent enough to make the step from "great" to "brilliant". The sequencing felt a little random and it seemed as though the band didn't quite have a complete grasp on exactly what they wanted to achieve with the album, resulting in a somewhat scattershot, unfocused affair. On their latest release, Random Spirit Lover, it seems that Spencer Krug's psychedelic-rock quartet has finally taken that extra step, and the pleasing result is the sound of a promising band edging significantly closer to realising their full potential. The first thing to take note of is that the production on Random Spirit Lover retains the characteristic, cloudy lo-fi sound of Shut Up I Am Dreaming, with the music feeling consistently "compressed". It kind of suits the dramatic, somewhat trippy style of the songs, however I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps some of the intricate details are lost through the inpenetrable murkiness of it all. At any rate, be aware that this is most definitely an album that needs to be experienced through decent speakers, or even better, through a good set of headphones. A boom box just isn't going to do it justice. One of the most striking things I noticed about Random Spirit Lover was its genuinely astonishing scope. Everything about this album feels downright epic, and the vast majority of the songs here are so ridiculously overstuffed that you'd expect some of them to fly off the rails, so to speak, but they're really surprisingly easy to sink into. With his songwriting both complex and creative, and his ambition seemingly in endless supply, Krug still manages to sound as though everything he stretches for remains firmly and effortlessly within his reach. Every one of the numerous elements of each track are utterly essential to the overall picture that they paint, combining for the admirable product of an album that feels so colossal and far-reaching, yet remains free of superfluous content and ill-advised artistic indulgence. Many of the songs track impressively through multiple styles and movements, while featuring several different choices of intriguing instrumentation, most notably a heavy favouring of 80s-styled, "dark synth", which recalls sci-fi movie soundtracks and evokes a particularly sinister vibe. There are multiple layers of guitar and synth on virtually every track, and many times dual vocalists are featured, resulting in an extremely dense musical setup. It should also be mentioned that Krug has proven himself as one of indie rock's very best when it comes to enigmatic-yet-memorable lyrics. In particular, Random Spirit Lover contains a large number of instantly striking vocal snippets and phrases, amongst the most effective of which are the repeated lines which serve like lyrical calling-cards for the songs in which they're contained. When Krug frantically yelps "It's an actor thing she's just pretending!" over and over toward the end of "The Mending of the Gown", or when he chants "Her highness is holding her chains" during "Up on Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days", it's the sort of unmissable, powerful lyric that gets stuck in your head and drives you back to repeat listens. Sunset Rubdown also display a major strength in their ability to create a really strong feeling of mood and atmosphere. Through some excellent and varied combinations of piano, organ, synth, percussion and both acoustic and electric guitar, they lend the songs an idiosyncratic feeling of gravitas, theatricality and juxtapositions of light and shade. For example, "Stallion", which is one of the album's major standouts, opens with some multitracked, haunted-house organ, which presents an initial setting that's vividly gloomy, before running through a handful of minor style shifts including an excellent guitar solo and a surging, guitar-and-drum-led finale. It manages to be thrilling in it's epic nature and far-reaching scope, and yet remains extremely concise and well-rounded. Like "Stallion", several other tracks on the album also include late style shifts into particularly distinctive finales, giving them a very progressive feel. Both "The Mending of the Gown" and "Up on Your Leopard..." utilise their previously-mentioned, memorable vocal chants to this end, while tracks like "Winged/Wicked Things" and "Trumpet, Trumpet, Toot! Toot!" make use of powerful, crescendo laden passages to close in ephatic fashion. All this energy is nicely complemented by "Child-Heart Losers", which sees Krug utilise little more than acoustic guitar and gentle vocals to close the album on a very graceful note. Random Spirit Lover shows an exciting, creative band taking an impressive step up after displaying so much promise early on. The album improves and expands upon the blueprint shown in Shut Up I Am Dreaming in almost every way, while Krug continues to sharpen his songwriting skills and displays his theatrical flair, ambition and virtually unmatched vocal passion without ever letting the songs spill over into unlikeable or unaccessable territory. It most definitely ranks amongst the year's very best releases. Highly recommended. |