Sunset Rubdown — Dragonslayer

Dragonslayer

Jagjaguwar/Sonic Unyon

Scott Bryson (CHARTattack)

06/25/2009 3:12pm

Sunset Rubdown's last disc, 2007's Random Spirit Lover, was an adventurous and polished opus, but its songs — which continually blended into one another — suffered from a lack of individuality. The album went by in a blur.

Spencer Krug and company correct that flaw on Dragonslayer, and return to the song-by-song format that gave birth to gems like "The Men Are Called Horsemen There" on 2006's Shut Up I Am Dreaming.

Some of the more judgmental Sunset Rubdown fans are voicing their anger across the blogosphere because two of Dragonslayer's tracks aren't completely new. "Idiot Heart," they say, has been part of the Sunset Rubdown live show since 2007 and "Paper Lace" is a track taken from Enemy Mine, the latest disc from one of Krug's other outfits, Swan Lake. Casual listeners will not find this bothersome, though.

Mythological speech is abundant here. Krug croons about all manner of ghosts, wizards, kings, queens and dragons' lairs, but the fairy tale subject matter is mostly used as metaphor. For the majority of Dragonslayer, Krug is either singing about his heart or about various former lovers.

There are only eight tracks on Dragonslayer, but most of them are epic in length, so it never feels like less than a full album. It's hard to tell after just a few listens if this is Sunset Rubdown's best record, but there's definitely very little to find fault with.