Destroyer

Destroyer, “Painter in Your Pocket”

It’s too facile by half to just talk about Bowie when you talk about Destroyer, but for real: that’s the reference point here. Obviously, it’s not just replication or anything, but there’s really so much Bowie in Destroyer that it’s hard not to at least acknowledge it.

Badly Drawn Boy, “The Shining”

It is my curse that any time I see the phrase “The Shining”, this is the inescapable result in my brain.

Destroyer, “Every Christmas”

This is the earliest Destroyer record that I’ve heard, I haven’t gone any earlier than this one. This album is very much a Destroyer record, full of Dan Bejar’s elaborate melodic pop and winding lyrics. I think he’d largely keep getting better, as his style of music pretty much always benefits from additional craft.

Badly Drawn Boy, “This Is That New Song”

Meanwhile, despite mining a similar vein of music, Damon Gough’s stuff didn’t get better as time went on. So, I suppose it doesn’t always work that way, and the lesson as always is I’m an idiot.

Skalpel, “Quicksilver”

Love me a good jazz/DJ thing.

Destroyer, “The Bad Arts”

Streethawk: A Seduction was the first Destroyer record that I heard, and this was the song that I heard on that record that really got me going. Something about how spare a lot of the song is, just his voice and either a simple groove or his guitar, just works super well. A delightful tune.

Cherubs, “Sooey Pig”

You know, it would have been just fine with me if that first thirty seconds of formless guitar noise just kind of kept going. I have objections with the rest of this crawl, mind you. But I love me a good wad of meandering feedback.

The Hidden Cameras, “Fear Is On”

This is far, far too twee. I want to knock the books out of this song’s hands and then stuff it into a locker.

Destroyer, “An Actor’s Revenge”

Your Blues is extremely Bowie. There’s always some Bowie in a Destroyer record, of course, but this one has always struck me as the most Bowie. Can it be more Bowie? The answer is none. None more Bowie.

Destroyer, “The Way of Perpetual Roads”

This is from Thief, a pretty early album from Destroyer before they became really big. Well, by indie standards. But even from this relatively early date, the ambitious melodies and elaborate pop were certainly present. The most frequent comparison I see people make with Destroyer is Bowie, and you can certainly hear why on this tune.

Tim Armstrong, “Translator”

Tim Armstrong is of course the man behind Operation Ivy and Rancid, but on his one solo record (A Poet’s Life), he lets a different side of his music shine. Backed by the Aggrolites, he put together a very straighforward ska record that embraces his influences and goes for it. It’s a fun record, and honestly, I wish he would do more like this.

The Decemberists, “Summersong”

I’ve talked a little about the Four Album theory, which is that some great metal bands (Metallica, Krallice, Mastodon) will push things as far as they can with their sound over four albums, before taking off in a different direction. It’s half-baked, yes, but it’s a theory anyway.

But in thinking about it, these aren’t the only Four Album bands. The Decemberists, for instance, pushed their increasingly elaborate folk-rock storytelling thing further and further over the course of their first four albums, culminating in The Crane Wife, which is really kind of a concept record that stands as the final record of that approach. While The Hazards of Love is maybe more ambitious, it kind of seeks a more prog direction without as much of the folk stuff, so to my ears, represents the same kind of stylistic break as those metal bands.

Here’s today’s list.

Destroyer, “Mad Foxes”

Your Blues is maybe the most Bowie of Destroyer’s albums, which is really saying something. I feel like I’ve made that comparison before. (looks) Hey, I haven’t! Anyway, this is very Bowie-ish. BOOM FRESH INSIGHT

411, “The Naked Face”

“Samiam or 411” would be a challenging game at times. It’s also a game that, like, four people are qualified to play.

Floor, “West”

Listen to how huge those guitars are, they wound like the inside of an industrial machine. And then they all lay out and let the drummer have some? Bliss! It’s a move that so many bands have pulled, and it’s because it works. If I were in a band, I’d have everybody get out and let the dummer have plenty! In fact, maybe we should just have the drummer! Hell yes just drums.

Today’s music. Just missed a Naked City track, a shame.

Destroyer, “Poor In Love”

We’ve talked some about A.C. Newman with respect to The New Pornographers, who we just heard from yesterday. But we haven’t really talked much about Dan Bejar, who writes something like a quarter of the songs for the Pornographers, and is the guy behind Destroyer, his main band. For years and years, Bejar has been writing ornate pop songs, moving from influence to influence, but always with interesting results. There’s something inescapably retro about the sound of Destroyer, whether that touchstone is 70s or 80s pop. This is from Kaputt, an album where Bejar went for even prettier than usual tunes, and isn’t a bad place to enter into Destroyer’s catalog.