The Wake

The bands that have emerged from Montreal obscurity in the past few years have damn near created their own genre. The Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Belle Orchestre, The Lovely Feathers— and they all to possess a sound that is consistently big and always building.. Though somewhat thieved from the Byrnes and Bowies before them, the sound is still undeniably epic in that chase - after - your - estranged - lover - in - an - airport - before - they - board - a - plane sort of way.

Sunset Rubdown (arguably the frontrunner for best band name), is just one in the kaleidoscope of projects helmed by Spencer Krug. Providing vocals and instrumentation for aforementioned indie darlings Wolf Parade, the darker, more frantic Frog Eyes, Krug is the unlikely pioneer of this musical coup.

Shut Up I Am Dreaming, Sunset Rubdown’s second full-length album from Absolutely Kosher Records, sounds just as gigantic as its predecessors. But what sets it apart are the tinges of vulnerability beneath an overwhelmingly powerful sound, like an unabashed admittance of fear before a big leap.

Krug’s smoldering howl fit only for numbing, full-bodied lyrics, like “I am a creature/and I am survivin’/and I want to be alone/but I want your body/Oh baby, mother me before you eat me”. When they’re sandwiched between his band’s plunking cabaret piano, haunted house guitars and earthshaking drum beats, hearts will sink.

“Stadiums and Shrines II” and “Shut Up I Am Dreaming Of A Place Where Lovers Have Wings,” are the disc’s arresting bookends, and also its best tracks. “There’s a kid in there, and he’s big, and dumb, and he’s kinda scared,” Krug cries, reminding us that the oh-god-they’re-about-to-get-married-to-the-wrong-person-I-have-to-stop-the-wedding kind of love will always be terrifying, and, much like “Shut Up I Am Dreaming”, will always make our palms sweat and pulses pound.