Twenty Twenty Twenty Twenty One by Spencer Krug
On June 17 2022, I discovered the album Twenty Twenty Twenty Twenty One by Spencer Krug. The Canadian singer had been on my radar since 2005. Wolf Parade and Apologies to the Queen Mary exploded into the indie rock world through their introduction to the scene through their association with Modest Mouse’s Issac Brock and Sup Pop records. I remember immediately idolizing the sound and the ingenious lyrics. Songs like You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son, Modern World, We Built Another World, Same Ghost Every Night, and I’ll Believe In Anything were lyrically and sonically different than anything I had heard before at 14. I thought to myself “Are these guys on drugs?” and I wanted some.
Spencer Krug was born in 1977 in British Columbia. The first instrument he gravitated towards was the piano. He first began playing piano but quickly picked up a guitar and is known for playing both instruments. He formed his first indie rock band in Victoria, B.C. Frog Eyes, the band recorded an EP, but Spencer went to study creative writing and musical composition at Concordia University. He met fellow singer-songwriter Dan Boeckner, and in 2003, the two started Wolf Parade. Apologies to the Queen Mary, which came out September 27, 2005. I remember these songs making me think about the world and how we were living. What distinguishes the modern world from the old? Why does the same ghost visit this house every night?
Krug a prolific writer has a lot to say and the same year he started Wolf Parade he started Sunset Rubdown to keep telling his epic tales without bouncing his ideas off of anyone else. 2009’s Dragon Slayer holds a special place in my heart.
Twenty Twenty Twenty Twenty One is Spencer Krug’s second solo LP following 2021’s Fading Graffiti. Spencer wears his psychedelic soul on his sleeve. The opening lyrics of the first song, Slipping In and Out of the Pool, “Nihilism is insane, When the hollowness you gain, Is the same as what you already had in your hand” sounded of home to me as I was studying the heady history of psychedelics and energy medicine. The lyrics “I think the world is a rubber band, I think we’re slipping in and out of the pool, I think an hourglass is different than quicksand I think it’s cool” presented a sense of urgency around the absurdity facing me as a public school teacher in Charleston County, amidst the return to public education post the extremities of the Covid-19 pandemic. The second song, How We Have to Live, meanders around a slow bass and synth line focusing on themes of identity. The lyrics hold dualities and sound both of personal loss, memories, and integration, "Money Changes Everything is both a wicked tune And a cautionary tale, and for the record, I was never down to cut the faces From the photos on the shelf I wouldn't change a thing, but now it's how we have to live Versus living with ourselves”. The third song, Cut the Eyeholes Out So I Can See, is a personal favorite, the metaphors are striking leaving unmistakable impressions upon the listener “We should make a moat around the house, Fill it up with sharks and four leaf clovers” these lines sing of isolation and building a fortress with someone where ultimately one of you peeks from behind the mask they are hiding behind. Lines of, “Should we stay inside again today” sound of the pandemic and the opening and closing metaphors speak to a desperate overarching impending apocalyptic theme painted by Spencer with, “ When they come to say the war is over, We can pull our shirts over our heads”. The fourth song, My Puppeteer, weaves an entrancing melody that slowly drags the listener around a meandering digital harpsicordesque keyboard tone that eventually spirals into synthetic madness. This song speaks to control and identity once again with the imagery of a Puppeteer, “If I’m a clown for you, Why all the wax on your lip, I rock around for you” once again making the metaphors sound of both personal relationship dynamics but also something more intangible and grandiose. The fifth Song, Bone Grey, is a swirl of colors that the name doesn’t suggest. It features a robotic female voice leading you on a journey of dreaming about the future and calling for peace for the children of the future. The lyrics barely sound human, “When we think about the music, We try to think like dancers, But when we dance, We try not to think about the music” the woman strangely tells us, “we used to sing about fire, but now we sing about smoke” talking about the changing of the seasons as if a new epoch has begun.
The sixth song is another favorite, My Muscles are Fine, “It’s in my Fucking Bones” this speaks to the structural decay of society. It might look rosy in some places on the outside, but the cracks are ever present and well worn to those who work in certain professions. The metaphors once again sound of the pandemic with, “When the parties start up again” and the closing lines of, “The surface is quiet, the sunshine has shone, Let me lean into the line I mean that despite how it looks I am not ..... But I won’t regret the good times” the mythology weaved by Spencer runs deep and I would love to speak to him about his writing process. On Overcast Afternoon, the seventh song sounds of a cloudy day where you feel to lazy to go outside, but your mind is still racing and full of thoughts to share, “The conspiracists are wеaving, Tapestries on the loom, The podcasters are dooming, On an overcast afternoon”. The synths are a garbled mess in the background as, “we can’t go back to the village, it’s been pillaged”. Spencer’s stories are unique beauty that discerning listeners can hear in his words a modern wordsmith of the likes of Dylan and Cohen. The eighth song New Kind of Summer of Love on the surface resurrects the theme of relationship, “The blindfolds are scattered on the shore, and everyone can see that your mouth is full of thorns, oh It’s a new kind of summer of love”, but clearly something much deeper is going on here. Once again speaking in multitudes, Spencer has so much to say it’s cryptic layers are hard to decipher, but still, there’s a brightness to the closing chant of, “Your kind fo summer of love”. The ninth song, Hanging Off the Edge, brings the apocalyptic theme visually home once again. The prophetic ways are alive in this one, which isn’t surprising given his reference to consuming Ayahuasca on 2021’s Fading Graffitti (which, I also recommend you check out). “First came the death of old ways Then came the birth of the new Laying a crown on our two headed self” The piano sounds are plain naked keys on this number providing a good calming support to the heaviness conjured up by Spencer’s dark leaning genius, “I don’t think we should live here anymore” he states. The last song, Chisel Chisel Stone Stone, calls in that biblical theme again as the synth tones dance around in the background as Spencer carves his message about the future into the rocks of ages. “An optimistic beast, Tried to be more than just a creature, Stood up on two feet”. Listen up or be lost as Spencer calls “You can hurt me for free circa 2020, you can hurt me for free circa 2020, you can hurt me for free circa 2020, but come 2021 you’ll have to carve me away”.
Spread Peace & Love with all that you do,
Will
