Crucial Track for January 4, 2026

"Us Ones In Between" by Sunset Rubdown

#365songs (4 / 365)

One of the iconic Spencer Krug songs, to me. Apparently "I'll Believe In Anything" (one of the others) has recently gone deservedly viral due to being in a popular TV show. But I didn't know about that until I started looking up things about "Us Ones In Between," which is (or was at one time) Krug's favorite Sunset Rubdown song. The relatively lo-fi sound of their first album I could take or leave — their third album, Dragonslayer, is much cleaner and my favorite of theirs — but it works in this song, which sounds like it was found on a tape in an attic, haunted by that e-bow floating over everything. And the lyrics and their delivery are quintessential Krug: whimsical, ominous, evocative, impassioned and earnest sliding into his charming yelpiness in the high notes. Great lines in this one. "Every lightning rod has gotta watch the storm cloud come." "I’ve heard of creatures who eat their babies and I wonder if they stop to think about the taste!" "Where’d the fucking sun go?" I have no idea what they mean but I find them moving nonetheless. My favorite kind of lyric.