Sunset Rubdown – the band that was originally a mere side project of Wolf Parade‘s Spencer Krug, but then took on a quite sizeable independent life of its own – here return with their fourth full length album, after the critical success of 2007′s Random Spirit Lover. And 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.
By this I mean, I think, that listening to, attempting to get to know, and finding neat summations to make about this music is no simple task. For every plus point there seems to also be an opposing negative, a grating aspect of the sound or imagery or delivery that would almost cancel it out, to the point that even know, well into the second paragraph of writing this review, I am not entirely sure if I actually really liked or really actually quite disliked it, overall.
The bad stuff – that really begins to rankle on repeated listenings – includes the sense of grandiosity, almost pomp, with which many tracks are infused. Witness the declamatory statements/pronouncements made, such as “I believe in growing old with grace” (‘Silver Moons’), and “I’d like to fight the good fight for another couple of years” (‘Dragon’s Lair’), although it is much in the delivery as the actual words that the great impression of self-importance comes across. This is perhaps exacerbated by the vocal delivery, which veers dangerously close to a hybrid of Mike Scott (Waterboys) and Bono on several occasions, particularly when the over-used “singing the same line again and again” device is used (worst culprits here are ‘Idiot Heart’, ‘Black Swan’, ‘You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)’ and the massively over-long closing track ‘Dragon’s Lair’ which simply ends up sounding like the band didn’t quite know how, or when, to end it).
There are also some almost unforgivably cheesy / dated sounding guitar riffs deployed, sounding more like something from an 80s hair metal band than one would ever really quite want to hear (‘Silver Moons’, ‘Idiot Heart’, ‘You Go On Ahead’), although this is admittedly mitigated by their being just one out of a whole range of different, contrasting guitar sounds used – in other places you will encounter a pleasing Mary Chain-esque shredding (‘Idiot Heart’ and ‘You Go On Ahead’ again) or a screeching dissonance coupled with a repetitive, compelling single bass note, as featured on ‘Black Swan’.
Finally, still in the debit column, the lyrical concerns are of the semi-mystical and legend-dappled variety, which can sound fey and a little unconvincing. References to practicing “ancient ways” (‘Silver Moons’), “Icarus” (‘Idiot Heart’), “Apollo” (‘Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh!), “Sampson” and “Delilahs” (sic) (‘Nightingale / December Song’) and the titular dragons abound, and, coupled with the vocal delivery, contribute to the somehow out-of-time, out-of-kilter aura that surrounds this album.
But… Despite all of the above, when a track gets under your skin, and takes flight then it really does soar. Opener ‘Silver Moons’ is both moving and genuinely touching, especially in the “gone are the days bonfires make me think of you” section towards the end; and both ‘Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh!’ and ‘Paper Lace’ similarly manages to reel the listener in. The latter – perhaps the most enjoyable track here – is almost reminiscent of Sparks in its upbeat, slightly camp synthy goodness.
Ultimately, though, this isn’t quite enough (for me) to counter the more irritating aspects of the album. Having reached the end of this review, I find that I am, in fact, only able to give it a half-hearted recommendation.
60%
But then… how do you explain the fact that its AWESOME?
The grandiosity, etc is also what makes Sunset Rubdown so good imo. I think comparing them to U2 is very unfair as U2 are so desperately rooted in the real world. Maybe the Waterboys comparison is more apt but since when was that a bad thing? I think we as a civilization need to come together and acknowledge that ‘The Whole Of The Moon’ is one of our highest points to date.
I’m with you Tom – sorry Jude – this is a fantastic album. Sure, they’re a bit ropey live, but on record they consistently blow me away.
Yeah, I was expecting people to disagree, but I really didn’t take to it. Not feeling it at all.
I agree that this band is pretty divisive, and your review cites the aspects of their sound that people either love or hate. But Bono? Give me a break. Krug doesn’t have 1/100 of the ego or self importance that Bono has, and he doesn’t sound like him at all either.
Massive return to form after the disappointing Random Spirit Lover, which for me lacked that Sunset Rubdown magic. I can start wearing my Snake’s Got A Leg t-shirt with nothing but pride again. ^_^
In my opinion this review completly misses the point of the album.
Dragonslayer (it’s name taken from an eighties sci-fi movie from what I understand) is a campy record. It’s brilliance is that it manages to be both grandiosly campy while at times, (in my experience) eliciting a real emotional connection…
But mostly its just fun.
I really don’t think Sunset Rubdown is a band that could be charged with taking themselves too seriously…they’re far too ironic, and self-deprecating for that. (Note the constant forth wall breaks in Random Spirit Lover (Do you think the second movement has too many violins?)
The intentional camp of this record I think is most clearly evidenced in Black Swan, when after the first round of the incredibly silly: “My heart is a kingdom/where the king is heart/My heart is king” there is a pause, the music cuts out, and Spencer delivers with a kind of comic timing, “the king of…hearts.”
What I think makes the record special aside from my own subjective percpetion that the thing is just gleefully fun and each moment packed with interesting melodic ideas, is that it tells a kind of story in its own way. In my interpretation, the album is about moving on from the end of a relationship/concomitant growing up.
Themes of leaving things behind, learning to tame one’s desires, growing old, permeate nearly each track in one way or another. Likewise, there is a “you”, who is also at times referred to as “Anna”…some woman who the “protagonist” seems forced to leave behind.
What makes the sudden change in the final track so great to me, (the part in which dead leaves…leads the speaker to suddenly, vividly describe leaving what is presumably an ex-lover’s train station) is that it suddenly plunges us, vividly into the real world contemporary reality which has been expressionistically represented throughout the rest of the album. Amid the dragonslaying, butterfly eating, buffalo hunting, and ghost chasing, we are given this really well written account of a mundane scene, which ties the album together through the image of dead leaves, one of the first introduced in silver moons, and returned to in dragon’s lair.
This to me is what makes the album special/powerful…It is a real mundane emotional experience of loss that is being expressed in an absurd/riddiculously grandiose manner…to me that’s the whole idea of it…the end of a relationship…the moment of pulling away from a lovers station knowing these days are over, is transformed as in the imagination of a child to a grand quest, in which simply moving on with ones life and learning to grow up becomes a mediavel mission to conquer dragons and free rapunzels.
Anyhow this is what the album evokes for me. My main arguement is that grandiosity is the whole point, its turns a story of mundane adult melancholy into a child-like bombastic adventure.
Anyway, just a look at the cover art and title should tell you self-seriousness is not the album’s primary trait.
Bono? No. Meatloaf? unfortunately, yes.
Wow, thanks for that post, Eric.
That put the album in a whole new light….
I was being put off by the cheesy aspect of the lyrics, but now they just add to the awesomeness.