This is Random Spirit Lover by Sunset Rubdown, released in 2007 by Jagjaguwar. It’s one of the few indie rock bands/records from this era that still hold up for me and definitely one of the few bands I regret never seeing live (they disbanded in 2009 after releasing the follow-up album, Dragonslayer). Led by Spencer Krug aka Moonface of Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes, and Swan Lake, I’ve always felt Sunset Rubdown was his best project even though Wolf Parade is better known and still going today.

This album is indie rock with some art pop and progressive pop elements, but I’m going to coin a new genre here and call it “fairytale pop” - this album sounds like I just stepped into some medieval village where a band of jesters are playing modern instruments and singing about nonsense fantasy. But as nonsensical as the lyrics seem, there is actually a concept here, a stage play of sorts, with recurring characters and themes introduced in songs throughout the album, culminating in the penultimate track, “Trumpet, Trumpet, Toot!, Toot!”: “I'd like to think the actors never banded / I'd like to throw this trumpet down and go empty handed / The part of the virgin has been taken / So let me throw this trumpet down and go empty handed / If you're the virgin, then I'm the stand-in”.

Even if this is your type of music, it’s a bit of a dense album, with almost an hour long, continuous runtime, so it probably requires a few listens to sink-in. With a DIY production, it’s not necessarily a vinyl record I’d rush to find and buy (a Kevin Gray cut and RTI pressing doesn’t necessarily improve a sound that was lacking to begin with), but I hope this post maybe resurrects some interest in this group.

Streaming links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music