REVIEW -- SUNSET RUBDOWN: DRAGONSLAYER

Sunset Rubdown

Dragonslayer

(Jagjaguwar)

While Wolf Parade bandmate Dan Boeckner tinkers away in electro-pop duo Handsome Furs with his wife, Spencer Krug goes for a more bombastic sound on his side project. With their third album, Sunset Rubdown finally reach that indie-prog crest Krug has been scaling the past few years. With songs about silver moons, black swans, and, yes, dragons, Dragonslayer sounds a little like a Yes album played by a gutsier Arcade Fire. But the Montreal quartet – despite the guitar solos, keyboard fills, and drum rolls – keeps things on the indier side of the quotient. You may wonder just what Krug is going on about half the time (“The buffalo have given up on the world/And Apollo? Apollo is kissing all the valley girls”), but the music comes through loud and mostly clear. --Michael Gallucci