Destroyer's Rubies — Destroyer
Merge
2006
Rating:


Dan Bejar's songs on the albums for The New Pornographers have always been difficult to warm up to next to Carl Newman's more accessible indie pop. But as the frontman for Destroyer, Bejar's songwriting abilities are able to standout with pronouncement, rivaling the best that indie rock has to offer.

"Destroyer's Rubies," Destroyer's seventh album and also its best, makes the strongest case for Bejar as a major songwriter of his generation. His lyrics have always been almost impenetrable for their references, but this may be the first time that Bejar has crafted idiosyncratic pop melodies that match the poetry of his words.

An electric guitar threatens to chew up Bejar as he sings "Dueling cyclones jackknife / They got eyes for your wife / And the blood that lives in your heart" on the 10-minute title track. The tone shifts to a galloping acoustic guitar that matches the speed with which Bejar's lyrics tumble from his mouth. "All good things must come to an end," Bejar laments before turning the phrase with, "The bad ones just go on forever." Bejar's plea, "Please don't wake me from my golden slumber" is echoed by anyone who hopes the rest of the album can live up to this opening salvo.

In fact, many of the songs that follow surpass it. The 12/8 trills of the Piano Man and tenor sax on "Looter's Follies" underline Bejar's most caustic jibes: "You can huff and you can puff but you'll never destroy that stuff," "Why can't you see that a life in art and a life of mimicry—it's the same thing!" and "Kids you'd better change your feathers / Cuz you'll never fly with those things." The hard-rocking "3000 Flowers" pounds the keys and lets the guitars classically soar as Bejar dispenses such "wisdom to the uninitiated" as that rock stars, "much like churchgoers, fuck themselves up." His single most romantic line comes during "A Dangerous Woman Up To a Point": "You disrupt the world's disorder just by the virtue of your grace, you know."

"European Oils" is the album's masterpiece. Beginning with barroom-evoking piano, the song quickly settles into a soft groove before the chorus causes the piano to cascade in arpeggios. When Bejar proclaims, "The fucking maniac!" and the song launches into a tenderly fuzzy guitar solo, it's the high point of not just the album, but the music year to date.

By the time "Destroyer's Rubies" ends — like all good things — Bejar has emerged with stronger feathers. No huffing or puffing will ever bring this album down.

Posted Thursday, March 2, 2006

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http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/music/destroyer/destroyer's.rubies