Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies

  by Chris Jones

published: 16 / 4 / 2006

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Opening an album with a nearly 10 minute long song is one thing if say the band is Tortoise, but to do this when the "band" is a one man singer/song writer that goes by the name of Destroyer is quite another. And yet, somehow Dan Bejar,full-time Destroyer and part-time New Pornographer, pulls it off amazingly well. In fact, he has perhaps produced the most concise 9 and half minute pop song I've ever heard. Sounding at times almost like a manic Dylan or a Ziggy era Bowie, Bejar strums and snarls his way through this album in such a way that even when things turn quiet the intensity is still there. The songs seem to be propelled like a drunk stumbling forward trying to keep one step ahead of the collapse. Swerve, shout, regain composure, trip, curse, stagger, mumble, onward it goes. And never once does it actually succumb to gravity. That a fairly clean sounding guitar and piano can carry such a powerfully rocking tone is something that musicians who rely on distortion and watts really need to understand. It's not quiet being the new loud, more clean being the new dirty. In some ways it harkens back to the old days of indierock when clean cut college kids got on stage and rocked out; they're sitting next to you in class during the day and kicking ass on stage at night. Nothing feels forced or contrived. It's just all unfolding right there in front of you and it is what it is. While other Destroyer albums have sounded interesting, this one is engulfing. It refuses to let the listener passively listen and have their attention drift away. Instead it grabs every ounce of attention and says "Ok, this way! Now that way! Over here! Around again!"

Track Listing:-

1 Rubies
2 Your Blood
3 European Oils
4 Painter In Your Pocket
5 Looters' Follies
6 3000 Flowers
7 A Dangerous Woman Up To A Point
8 Priest's Knees
9 Watercolours Into The Ocean
10 Sick Priest Learns To Last Forever

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