Sunset Rubdown
Dragonslayer

Jagjaguwar
out June 23rd

[82]
[Rating Scale]

[rating:82/100]

It’s impossible to talk about Sunset Rubdown without talking about Spencer Krug, the insanely prolific indie rock frontman associated with Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes, Swan Lake, and Sunset Rubdown, to name a few. He founded the band. He’s a dynamic presence on every track. He plays a million instruments. He has one of the most distinctive voices in today’s music. He’s pretty much a baller.

Yet to talk about Sunset Rubdown and only talk about Krug would be an injustice – a fact that has never been more evident than on Sunset Rubdown’s fourth full-length release, Dragonslayer. Sure, Krug’s influence (and voice) can be heard everywhere on the album. But compare this album to Krug’s first solo release under the Sunset Rubdown moniker, 2005’s Snake’s Got a Leg, and you will find yourself doing math with apples and oranges. The band has developed, blossomed, gained some flesh, and distinguished itself enough from Krug’s solo work that the fact that I’ve gone this far into my review of Dragonslayer only talking about him makes me a bit embarrassed. So onto the rest.

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