Destroyer
Destroyer’s Rubies (Merge)
Dan Bejar’s finally made it in the straight world. He’s shed his New Pornographer creds and found his voice in these Rubies. “European Oils” unfolds like a passion play over twinkling piano and a dreamy wave of la-da-das, which Bejar employs in different versions throughout the album. A fuzzy guitar trot paces his story of the hangman’s daughter, blood, treachery, insanity, and random women – typical Bejarisms. (There’s even a Destroyer drinking game for these recurrences.) Grandiose themes anchor the songs to velvet guitar lines, lilting sax, and his adenoidal vocals, which at times ascend into English pomp and Bolan sneer. “Painter in Your Pocket” is confessional, waiting for a lazy crescendo that eventually mulls like wine, and “Looters’ Follies” edges the Bowie-savant: “Kids you better change your feathers, because you’ll never fly with those things” levels you with one glittered eye, and when Bejar yelps “tore his goooown,” it sends you to Mars. Anyone on the fence after 2004’s Your Blues need only hear Bejar bark, “I tried to enjoy myself at the society ball” on the luxurious “A Dangerous Woman up to a Point” to see his strength as a songwriter; it’s manic, beautiful, self-referential – the perfect Destroyer song.
This article appears in February 24 • 2006.