Sunset Rubdown take a break from slaying dragons (photo: David Horvitz)

With Dragonslayer, the electrification of Sunset Rubdown is complete.  Their progression from Spencer Krug, alone in his bedroom, making music with pianos, synths, guitars and poor quality microphones on Snake's Got a Leg back in 2005, to a full band with a comparatively massive sound, wielding electric guitars with a confidence that Random Spirit Lover hinted at two years ago, is complete.

I can - and do - still put on any Sunset Rubdown album and love it, so this transformation is not something that can be classified as a change for either better or for worse (though it is true that Krug's songs deserve the attention and treatment they have received since the fantastic Shut Up I Am Dreaming).  After all, the songs are still written by Spencer Krug and his unique style is indelibly stamped onto them.  'Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna, Oh!' is a perfect example - it still has that mixture of wandering and steadiness in music that is key to Krug's style, it still has the synths and pianos (his preferred instruments, it seems) and it still has the abstract lyrics that are so loved by Krug and his Swan Lake band-mates, Dan Bejar and Carey Mercer.

One reason why the album, despite it's bigger sound, still feels familiar is that a few of the songs have been seen before (though not properly released).  'Idiot Heart' and 'You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)' have been performed for the Daytrotter and Black Cab Sessions respectively, and remain fairly unchanged since then, whilst a slightly more tentative sounding (though possibly better) version of 'Paper Lace' was included on the latest Swan Lake album Enemy Mine earlier this year.

To hear these songs given a proper Sunset Rubdown release is a great pleasure, and to hear them relatively unchanged since their inception as far back as 2007 shows the confidence and foresight of Dragonslayer, in contrast to Random Spirit Lover, which was half-written in the studio during the recording process.  What Spencer Krug has proved in making Dragonslayer is that he is perfectly capable of producing brilliant records in either fashion, and that, however they are created, no two Sunset Rubdown albums will ever sound the same, and all them will be works of genius.