Sunset Rubdown: Random Spirit Lover

Artist: Sunset Rubdown
Release: Random Spirit Lover
Label: Jagjaguwar
Rating: IX

So how does one write a proper review for their record of the year? One could sit and type and erase, type and erase and try to do it justice and at the same time try to convince the world to hear Random Spirit Lover by Sunset Rubdown and agree with you. One could apply the laws of opinion and it might become a bit easier, but not in this case because this review is fact in a lot of cases. I therefore allow myself full snooty rights, complete free reign to say what I want, and that the statements made for this review will be true for the most part and not opinion, and im ok with pissing people off as a result. What if someone said Abbey Road was “just a decent record”, they’d be wrong wouldn’t they? Opinion at a certain point becomes obsolete even though they are entitled to it.

I’ll be fair and acknowledge that the statement made about this being the best record of the year thus far is an opinion, but the fact that the musicianship and song writing and arrangements are better than what most musicians are doing out there currently is a fact. It’s not even really the lyrics themselves as I tend to focus on at least for half of what makes a record good, but how it’s arranged and the way it’s put together that makes it so unique. I like the lyrics of the record and there are some really great lines and concepts like with the repeating of someone named “Maggie”, virgins, actors, leopards, and soemthing to do with a play.

I simply don’t understand how someone can write songs the way Spencer does. He thinks so far outside the box and his arrangements seem so haphazard yet fall into a pattern and line that’s really well thought out. That or he has us all duped and he just plays some chords and sings over it. On the opening track, “The Mending Of The Gown”, I really don’t think he repeats a chord on his keyboard. It just goes fast and he appears to just slam some notes, but at the same time there are repetitions and parts so well orchastrated it’s beyond my mental comprehension. What I believe is a chorus goes “Was it the mending of the gown, or the running it around?” which repeats twice and the rest is just complete fast meshed together rock with the only other lines repeating, “See the paddle go up and the paddle go down” and “It was the tender mending of this slender gown which brought me bending to the ground”, which he somehow fit earlier and then later in the song in the explosion of organized chaos. For the closing of the song, he uses a string of lines (starting with the last mentioned line) with a melody that’s actually one of the best sounding things I’ve ever heard in a song. When I hear it while driving I want to unclick my seat belt and roll out of the car because it’s so good.

The second song on the record “Magic Vs. Midas” starts off really slow and has long pauses in the beginning in between lyrics which almost don’t make it a song, which without a metronome would seem impossible to do live. It slowly forms and also builds into a song which shifts and grows even more, and by the end it rounds off into a gripping keyboard part with the drums slaming away to compliment it well.

From there the record takes you into a the yee old irish era. This song, “Up On Your Leopard, Upon The End Of Your Feral Days”, has about 4 different changes and really takes you all over the place. Keep in mind that during all this the songs flow from one to the next with each song starting before the previous song has ended which gives it even more continuity and never ending flow which adds to the concept of the record. So as “Up On Your Leopard, Upon The End Of Your Feral Days” ends, the guitar clicking for “The Courtesan Has Sung” comes in which makes for a smooth good sounding transition.

The rest of the record changes and flops around so much in sound that each song nearly feels like a different record in its entirety. Songs like “Colt Stands Up, Grows Horns” and “Stallion” have a dark haunting edge to it while a song like “The Taming Of The Hands That Came Back To Life” has a more rythmic up beat catchy guitar and melody Arcade Fire feel to it. The last song, “Child-Heart Losers” takes you out on a nice little acoustic piece ending off the record perfectly. The guitar parts that accompany the already very complex keyboard parts are rather impressive. The either accidental, or so well thought out parts, do things like leave out one little part in the intro on “The Mending Of The Gown” on the second progression after the tambourine comes in. There are crazy things like that throughout the record that only Spencer and his band hold the secrets to.

Overall this is a record everyone into any kind of indie rock, and outward, should hear at least once. If you are a musician really take in the guitar and keyboard work, not to mention the drumming which is out of this world. Then take the vocals (often mixed a little low) which flow and attack each song perfectly. Find the treasures and hidden groves in Random Spirit Lover. They are there waiting to be discovered.

Up On Your Leopard, Upon The End Of Your Feral Days mp3:

End Scene,
Dan Tana