Sunset Rubdown Dragonslayer (Jagjaguwar)
4/5
By: Liam Manley
As we get older, our minds become restrictive – it’s why the elderly are so racist. We impulsively dismiss instead of opening ourselves to new experience. But we must fight this easy decline. For instance, you might listen to Dragonslayer and think “that second track sounds like U2 wearing ruffs. Please press stop”. Or you might think "this song has 13 middle eights – why?". Sure, Sunset Rubdown may lean toward the structurally perverse, but this isn't prog - it's maximum pop.
Dragonslayer is a massive sandwich of an album and not one of those composed mainly of doughy Bowie bread. No, the most distinguishable ingredient here is 70s Sparks spread evenly over Casio keyboard filigree and fugue. If you were nightmare-scarred enough to have such thoughts, you could perhaps compare it to melodically opulent 80s power rock. But only if you could re-imagine Brian Eno as a much hairier man – a much hairier man who joined Toto and made them awesome.
It's near impossible to see past your in-built prejudice - it's hard-wired from years of fighting for your own point of view. Still, people will always hear what they want to hear. A co-worker at my day job was adamant that Elton John's 'I'm Still Standing' featured not a "true survivor", but a "cute koala". Politely corrected, he just shrugged his shoulders. He won't change. He'll forever sing it his way. But if you don’t calm the impulse to always hear things your way, you risk missing out.
Artists in this article: Sunset Rubdown
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment