Record Review--Sunset Rubdown, "Random Spirit Lover"

Sprawling, ambitious and at times engrossing, the one thing that you cannot say about Random Spirit Lover is that it is boring. Each song sounds nothing like the other. Some have an almost showtunes like quality to them (although, it must be said they do not take advantage of this genre skipping as well as P:ano) while others sound like outtakes from the latest Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album. The bands sounds like a strange cross between the Shins, Clap Your Hands, P:ano, and Destroyer. If you can imagine what that band would sound like, well, then you should be writing children's books because you have one hell of an imagination.

When this album really works are on the more traditional song formats like the track "Up on Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days" where the lead singer wins you over with the earnestness of his lyrics like, "You're the one throwing dead birds in the air" which is an insult to an ex-lover that she's the one to blame for the end of their relationship.

If there are a couple of complaints for this album on is the length of the songs. I don't think any song is less than 5:00 minutes long and some of the kitschy ideas the band has actually starts to annoy as the songs go on. Another problem with the album is that its simply too all over the place. Sunset Rubdown clearly have a lot of great ideas, the problem is they try and combne them in one one song too often. This album would have been better served if they kept one or two solid melodies and harmonies per song rather than throwing everything in at once.

With that being said, this band is really hard to describe, consequently everyone should form their own opinions on this band. Give them a listen because you may like them more than I do.

FINAL SCORE--6.6 ( I think they're next album will be much better).