Sunset Rubdown: Are You Ready For 'Random Spirit Lover'?

Spencer Krug's vocals are distinguishable from about a mile away. And that's a good thing. Because in the first half minute or so of the upcoming album, Random Spirit Lover, you're captured by the familiar rich tone of Krug's vocals, and you're ready to dive right in. Am I saying the album is accessible? Absolutely. But then again, it really depends on what you've been listening to lately.


'The Mending of the Gown' has been going around the blogs the past couple days, and everyone's basically been telling you that it's got all the signatures of a Krug track, and that's absolutely true. Elements of Wolf Parade and the previous Sunset album are in there, and is an interesting juxtaposition to 'Magic vs. Midas' which follows right after. After the noise driven opening track, this one takes a little bit of a back seat. I only mention this because of the severe contrast. Anyway, let's talk about the first exceptional track on the album (not that the others aren't).

'The Courtesan Has Sung' has this incredible lo-fi feel that builds from a musically sparse track (starting with only drums and near psychedelic vocals) into a musical frenzy about halfway through the song. You find yourself drowning in a sea of noise, and you don't want to be rescued. All in all, it's one of most solid tracks on the album. 'Winged/Wicked Things' is just as good, with the synth that underlies most of the song, quite possibly being even more dominant than the vocals. The other thing to note about the songs has to be the fairytale-esque lyrics that involve astronauts and wanderers and such and enhance the often ethereal feel of the album as a whole.

A few others that I enjoyed are 'Stallion', 'Setting Vs. Rising', and 'Child-Heart Losers'. I don't know why, but I just really the slower songs generally, even though the album is great altogether. It'll be out October 9th, so mark your calenders, and keep an eye out at Jagjaguwar's website to check out pre-orders and other news.

Sunset Rubdown - The Mending Of The Gown
Sunset Rubdown - The Courtesan Has Sung
Sunset Rubdown - Setting Vs. Rising