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Oct 08, 2014 Moonface By Jim Scott

Spencer Krug’s fifth recording as Moonface, the 5-song EP City Wrecker, continues along the path he walked on 2013’s Julia With Blue Jeans On: it’s simply Krug’s voice and a piano. The centerpiece is “City Wrecker,” the finest song of this iteration of Krug and maybe of his career. It’s absolutely heartbreaking as it moves through Krug’s history of broken relationships and the places that he associates with them. It’s a common human experience, and though songs often describe the flip side of this, the golden-hue of nostalgia, the bitterness of failure and the places where it’s housed are rarely explored.

The brilliance of “City Wrecker” is tempered by “Helsinki Winter 2013,” which, rather than being an artfully bare confessional is a more clichéd tale. This is nitpicking, and coming from another songwriter, it would be fine work, but Krug has set such a high bar that any false notes set off outsized alarms.

Krug regains his footing in the lovely and affecting closer, the 10-and-a-half minute “Daughter of a Dove,” in which he recounts a series of images, concluding, “That’s as spiritual as I need to be.” It’s also the only song that opens up beyond the piano, adding some sonic textures, and after all of the purity, it’s astonishing that this little touch has such a deepening effect.

“We all know safety/Is a blessing and a curse,” Krug sings, and by leaving behind the safety net of all of the wonderful musicianship that marked his work with Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, and Swan Lake, Krug is turning out some of the most beautiful and lyrically compelling songs around. (www.moonface.ca)

Author rating: 7.5/10