Spencer Krug: Same Fangs

Spencer Krug revived “I’ll Believe in Anything,” creating a solo piano version he had worked on for years. The release gained momentum after the original song went viral through a needle-drop placement in Heated Rivalry, increasing interest in his broader catalog. The piano arrangement streamlines the earlier stomp-clap feel, moving from delicate beginnings into a gently swinging ending. Same Fangs continues Krug’s uncompromising approach, drawing from his Patreon subscription series. The music blends warped beauty with brokenness, using destroyed piano chords and unsettling vocal delivery. Harmonically, Krug centers songs on simple tonal foundations while circling them with revolving chords, producing sharply composed details that blur into diffuse overall shapes.

"Earlier this year, Spencer Krug revived “I’ll Believe in Anything,” a 20-year-old classic by his former band Wolf Parade. He noted on Instagram that he'd tinkered with a solo piano version for years, but this, at last, was the one he felt he could stand behind. The breakthrough arrived shortly after the original song went viral from a needle-drop placement in the TV series Heated Rivalry, which drove new interest toward Krug's catalog-a deep, murky place that includes Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, and his solo albums."

"“I'll Believe in Anything” was a streamlined forerunner of the stomp-clap era, and Krug delivers it clean, working it from lacy beginnings to a gently swinging ending. It's a rare case of the Canadian musician aiming for mass appeal. It's fun to imagine people falling into his arcane world through an accessible portal. His new album makes no concessions to curious newcomers: This is undiluted Krug, the unsettling sound of being stuck in your head."

"Like most of his recent LPs, Same Fangs was culled from Krug's Patreon subscription series, a format befitting the rarified tastes of indie-rock truffle hunters and ortolan eaters. He was always considered the weird one in Wolf Parade. Dan Boeckner brought the meat and potatoes; Krug showed up with a pasta made of broken clocks and inscrutable sauce. On his own, he hits like a PG-13 Xiu Xiu, choking out ballads of beauty and brokenness over destroyed piano chords."

"Harmonically, Krug likes to describe wary circles around a simple tonal center, a couple of chords revolving through an outward-spinning cosmos. Picture rock as a dark and desolate place, shot through with tentative light. His songs seem sharply composed at the line level yet blurred overall, their outlines diffuse-the melodies go where he needs them to go, and the lyrics follow. He uses his lovely voice in a creepy way, something a little sick in the vibrato,"

Read at Pitchfork