Destroyer - Your Blues
(Merge)
Ok, after having completed a university degree and at least 20 rock reviews for this illustrious publication, I will be the first to admit: I can't write all that well. Then Dan Bejar, AKA Destroyer, comes along to remind me how awkward stringing together words can be. For Bejar is not only a master songsmith, with a savant-like ability to construct shimmering tunes, but a true rock poet. Even better, on Your Blues, Bejar is at his sharpest. Really, he had some of us worried with 2002's This Night, a record that experimented with a full rocking band and general looseness, but generally ended up rather flat.
If This Night was Bejar's attempt to shake things up, Your Blues is his overwrought vision realized. In his dreams, Dan imagines his trademark glamicized wail guided by the fair hand of crashing timpani, soaring strings and triumphant horns playing out his ultimate pop fantasy. One can just imagine some air-conducting going on while Bejar was cooking up such lines as "An actor will seek revenge upon the ones who fed him those ridiculous lines saying 'What we really need now is an emotional history of the Lower Eastside, cause it was wild!'" on "An Actor's Revenge."
Easily the most striking about thing Your Blues, apart from the often noted over the top vocal delivery, is the synths and lack of traditional rock instrumentation. This instrumentation will definitely raise eyebrows from Bejar-heads and the uninitiated alike. Some may see it as an ironical move, but really it is more complicated than that. It allows Dan to explore new realms of composition, and to heighten listener sensitivity to his pop extremism. With such an approach, Bejar can sharpen his teeth, and fully play out this particularly jagged piece of insider/outsider pop. His slight crutch, revealed more on This Night than Your Blues, is that his unique vocal delivery and songwriting anchors his tunes and somewhat impedes artistic development.
Probably not the tour-de-force of 2001's Streekhawk: A Seducation, Your Blues nevertheless belongs on the silver platter of Bejar releases. Even skeptical Canadians will have to admit that this guy is a national treasure. Where are you Governor-General when we need you?
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