Pitchfork

Spencer Krug is a busy guy. He's in Wolf Parade and Frog Eyes, and he's now collaborating with Dan Bejar and Carey Mercer in Swan Lake. Then there's Krug's Sunset Rubdown project, in which every element-- the off-kilter songwriting structure, fantastical lyrics, oddball instrumentation, and above all his unusual voice-- works together as a unified whole. If any one part was straighter, the cumulative effect would be diminished. It's the kind of music that creates its own world, and while it's not a place everyone wants to live, the people who spend time there enjoy themselves immensely.

Sunset Rubdown's third album Random Spirit Lover is coming this fall from Jagjaguwar, and we're happy to be able to offer Pitchfork readers an early listen with this exclusive track. "Up On Your Leopard, Upon the End of Your Feral Days" begins with an explosive, downright spazzy hook in the early going that seems channeled from some old maritime ballad, perhaps something heard on the coast of Nova Scotia, 1,000-some-odd km east of the band's Montreal home. The person it's addressed to, who used to ride around on a leopard, is now looking at the end of his or her feral days; but the song itself gets off on wildness, celebrates it with every galloping drumbeat.

People WILL be shouting along to that "Whoa-oh-oh-ah-oh" hook at shows-- you can almost hear them now-- and the song stays interesting by going through a series of breakdowns, where the circus instruments drops away, Krug crackles his way through a bridge, and then the song reassembles itself to work through one last variation at the end. Those guitar taps you hear at the close lead directly into to "The Courtesan Has Sung" on the album, creating a suite-like effect perfect for the band's style. So, yeah, Random Spirit Lover is definitely something to look forward to, in the meantime we have this to enjoy. Below the stream is a first look at the album cover.