Moonface Julia With Blue Jeans On

Spencer Krug’s music has always been characterized by a certain intensity of spirit, but even that only hinted at his full emotional potency. Third Moonface album Julia With Blue Jeans On rips away the ex-Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown man’s usual compositional intricacies, laying bare his voice and piano and drilling down to the raw power of his melodies and lyrics. The songs, all directly or obliquely about love, pierce straight to the heart. If “Let me take you up these stairs/Let me take you to my life,” from “November 2011,” doesn’t leave eyes watery, this chilling turn of phrase, from “Barbarian,” surely will: “I recall how I asked you where you want to be buried/And you asked me the name of the town where I was born.” Or maybe, Krug’s hands, cascading ’cross the ivory, do the real spine-tickling, wordlessly heralding a generational talent with skills he’s still revealing.