Sunset Rubdown: Dragonslayer

I was pretty excited when I bought Sunset Rubdown's latest album, "Dragonslayer," earlier this summer (still can't get over that summer is over). It had received solid reviews from many sources, and I was already a pretty big fan of their album "Shut Up I am Dreaming." However, I just could not get into this album the first few times through. It couldn't grab my attention.

As you may or may not know, I am a big Wolf Parade fan. Spencer Krug -- keyboardist/co-frontman of Wolf Parade -- heads Sunset Rubdown, and I think this may have been where my initial disappointment originated. I wanted to hear Wolf Parade, but I wasn't getting it.

"Dragonslayer" is not Wolf Parade. It's a little magical, almost giving me a "medieval" feel -- like the music could accompany a story of kings , and knights and serfs and (yes) dragons. It does feature the classic Krug "Oh's" and "Ah's," as well as some strikingly visual lyrics. ("Hope that you died in a decent pair of shoes./You got a lot of long walking to do.")

This album has really grown on me in the past month. Once I stopped wanting it to be something it wasn't, it really set in, and now I find myself listening to it in entirety -- multiple times in a row. There are only 8 tracks, but each is a decent length, and each kind of tells its own story. The one song I don't dig all that much is the 10-minute final track -- "Dragon's Lair" (but I do love the word play of the song title).

So I'd say give this album a shot. It might not stick at first, but can definitely grow on you.

You can listen to the album on the band's Myspace page.