Random Spirit Lover
- Sunset Rubdown
- Band Name: Sunset Rubdown
- Record Label: Jagjaguwar
- Release Date: Oct 9, 2007
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100If you’re already among the converted, Random Spirit Lover is a second straight masterpiece from arguably the most talented songwriter of this generation.
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The album is packed with impressive musicianship, a great attention to detail, melodic lines backed with beautiful harmonies and countless powerful moments.
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90Grounded enough to know the limits of the listener (songs meander, but only to the confines of their ideas, never tiring out a single theme), but more than adventurous enough to remain extremely exciting.
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90Random Spirit Lover even crushes "Beast Moans" at points, its arrangements meatier and more satisfying, with an off-kilter Disney otherworldliness and kudzu-dense overlapping keyboards.
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90The shrewdly crafted Random Spirit Lover is the most satisfying batch of songs Krug has ever released.
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85But while Random Spirit Lover is dense and thorny-- even opaque, at times--it's never haphazard.
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Sporting more burps and squiggles per square inch than your average rumpus room, Lover teems with intricate guitars, icing-sweet synthesizers, and Krug's delicately chiseled harmonies.
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This difference means Random Spirit Lover is harder to digest than its predecessor, but all the more rewarding upon repeated listens. [Fall 2007, p.76]
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As with so many of rock's finer moments, the beauty’s in the overreach, and while newcomers to Krug’s idiosyncratic style may find it easier to warm to the more accessible leanings of the Wolf Parade record, for everyone else, this is essential stuff.
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Fans of "Blackberry Way"-era Move, Berlin-era Bowie, late-period Of Montreal, and the Danielson Famile will eat this up like the candy it is.
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80Spencer Krug is blessed with an extremely creative mind, and in this album he unleashes it full-throttle. While it's less accessible than his work with Wolf Parade, this disc may still manage to overshadow his more famous band's efforts.
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Crafting a decidedly more difficult record was likely something Krug intended, considering these songs seamlessly segue in and out of each other. That means some parts sound almost superfluous, as if they were written expressly to maintain this continuity. Still, the effect succeeds far more often than it fails.
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73With twelve songs running just about an hour in length, Random Spirit Lover really starts to wear out its welcome during the latter third to quarter. Fans of their past work will definitely find lots to love here, and they will likely gain a few converts, but I still wish they'd focus a bit more.
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It bears all the signs of an artistic statement, stretching for meaning even as it reconstitutes and tears at the corners of its component definitions. It is both complete and incomplete; logical and wayward; good and, yeah, bad.
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70Their creepy, absorbing third album brims with the brittle pop practiced by everyone from Sparks to Arcade Fire. [Nov. 2007, p.125]
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Krug tests the patience of even the most tolerant listener via a convoluted and self-indulgent mess of music that occasionally--and seemingly accidently--stumbles across moments of brilliance. [Nov 2007, p.163]
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His music’s dynamic, but his voice lacks range and variety. Krug sings emotionally, but not responsively.
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Lover's defects stem less from long length than from how densely Krug packs each nervous tic.
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40Krug's non-stop croaking yells get old quickly, and the few highlights are hardly worth sitiing through an hour of Renaissance Faire-y meandering. [Fall 2007, p.108]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 20 out of 21
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Mixed: 1 out of 21
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Negative: 0 out of 21
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