Artist – Album: Destroyer – Destroyer’s Rubies
Released: 21st
February 2006
Sounds Like: Dan Bejar’s wonderfully weird present for
you
Today seems to be the
day of many birthdays. My little sister turns 22 today, which she’ll be
celebrating by working a 10 hour shift in the local bar. Lucky girl. It’s also
my uncle Bob’s (yep, Bob is my uncle) big day, a guy that we
sometimes call Sorry Bob because of the prolific number of apologies he fires
out in regular conversation. Robert Mugabe, Nina Simone and Alan Rickman were
all born on this day, some of whom went on to have less of a positive effect on
the world than others (I’m thinking of you, Professor Snape). And my friend’s
daughter is celebrating her third birthday today. Happy birthday Ruby! Emily’s
Ruby is exactly 4 years younger than Destroyer’s Rubies, today’s item of
vaguely music related bloggery.
Destroyer (aka Dan Bejar) has a moniker that you’re
more likely to associate with some death metal band, but in fact his niche is
more of a sonic, free-flowing indie rock. On Destroyer’s Rubies he crafts epic
length rock songs, occasionally punctuated by distorted guitar solos and
sing-a-long chants, but more often populated by Bejar’s wonderful slacker
vocals spouting cryptic poetry.
With its labyrinthine song structures and Destroyer’s innate
oddness, there’s a lot here that, on paper, should scare off the casual
listener. Descriptions such as avant garde aren’t far wide of the mark. At
times the enigmatic lyrics are impenetrable. But elsewhere they’re brilliant in
their simplicity, as in album highlight ‘Painter
in Your Pocket’ – “I didn’t stand a chance, I couldn’t stand at all, you
looked OK with the others, you looked great on your own”. This was the seventh
studio album by Destroyer and with experience he’s learnt to weave his weird
and wonderful stories around mesmerizing melodies. It’s a record that
thankfully defies those theoretical repellents and it’s been a real pleasure to
listen to. Happy birthday to me.
Albumaday... rating:
7/10
1. Rubies
– 9:25
2. Your
Blood – 4:14
3. European
Oils – 4:52
4. Painter
in Your Pocket – 4:09
5. Looters’
Follies – 7:25
6. 3000
Flowers – 3:46
7. A
Dangerous Woman Up to a Point – 6:01
8. Priest’s
Knees – 3:06
9. Watercolours
into the Ocean – 4:43
10. Sick
Priest Learns to Last Forever – 5:53
Listen to ‘Painter in
Your Pocket’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWg9HEomLs
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