Album of the Week: Sunset Rubdown- Random Spirit Lover

If there's a trend I'm beginning to see in 2008 amongst the indie rock leading minds, it's that this is the year of indulgence and complexity. Perhaps I'm making a mountain of a mole hill, but with Stephen Malkmus's album being all jammy and guitar hero-y, the forthcoming Silver Jews album being all accessible and poppy, and future releases by Wolf Parade and Islands having both awesome cover art as well as complicated, long winded songs, it's starting to look like everyone is following whims and/or pushing themselves to expand their art.

I'm going back to Random Spirit Lover by Sunset Rubdown from this past fall, and I'm finding this similar change had already taken place within this band. The songs are longer (only two songs are less than four minutes), more complicated, and less distinct--often the songs flow into each other and have no obvious chorus/verse/chorus structures. This isn't so much prog rock as it is a true album album.

Music critics have used phrases like 'rewards repeated listening' and 'a true album rather than a collection of songs' for many years, and it's exactly for releases like Random Spirit Lover that they were forged. I've been listening to the album off and on since its release last October but it's only recently that I've completely come around to it. Up to this point, it most definitely was good but I didn't see the greatness yet. Compared to Spencer Krug's work with Wolf Parade, Swan Lake, or even the last Sunset Rubdown album, it felt like he was purposely sabotaging one of his best assets: his ability to write off-kilter but insanely catchy songs.

However, given enough time, Random Spirit Lover reveals itself to be every bit the equal of those projects. While they may possess better, self contained songs, Random Spirit Lover possesses better moments. None of the songs from the album immediately stand out, but moments certainly do. 'The Courtesan Has Sung' begins with an echoed, overlapping vocal line and primitive percussion, a seeming minimalist indulgence with no merit, before Krug starts to sing wordless "woah ah oh"s and the keyboards and guitars strike and the whole thing positively glows out of the speakers. Meanwhile, 'Colt Stands Up, Grows Horns'--which is the weakest 'song' on the album--serves to take the sting off the brilliant 'Winged/Wicked Things' with its spacey, frozen ambiance before a crazed funhouse keyboard outro leads us into the mid-tempo 'Stallion' which begins the second half of the album. I don't know if it's actually true, but from the time that keyboard outro begins and Krug comes in on 'Stallion', it feels like the longest stretch of time on the album without vocals. This gives the whole three song package a tinge of entering the second half of a story, as if an all instrumental intermission has occurred before the curtain rises on the next act.

The problem with an album like this is that if you're the sort of listener who just wants to get to the catchy pop moments, you're going to hate this album. It's difficult in the sense that it only rewards people who will stick with it and enjoy not just the main course of a meal but the aperitifs, appetizers, desserts, and digestifs as well. You could skip around to the moments or songs you like best, but it doesn't have the same effect it does when you listen to the whole thing and come to these heights naturally. With Random Spirit Lover the old adage holds true: it's about the journey, not the destination. The first time I listened to the whole thing in its entirety, it was during a power outage. Forced to kill time with just my iPod, I gave it my full attention in one chunk rather than the piecemeal listens I had given it in the past. I loved the experience, but afterward I couldn't remember which specific songs I liked.

This will be why people who just want quick-and-dirty three minute pop songs won't like it, and why people who want something more will love it. You really need to set aside an hour and give yourself over to it completely. Just as you would devote more time and attention to a complicated film, novel, or videogame, Random Spirit Lover asks more of the listener but it also provides richer rewards. You may not listen to it every day, but when you're in the mood for a full meal and not just the main course, you'll find a lot to digest here.