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Oh, Dan Bejar! Oh, you. You and your weird, enigmatic, bizarre, poetic lyrics. You and your strange, hiccupping, gasping, nasally singing voice. You and your obsession with some girl named "Jackie"...
You may know Dan from his involvement with The New Pornographers, but don't be confused into thinking Dan's other project might lend itself to the Pornographers' poptastic buoyant sound. If The New Pornographers' songs are a party, Destroyer's songs are the late-night, drunken, guilty post-party confessions.
This is actually the band's sixth album, and while I'm admittedly not as familiar with his other albums, I can say this one is really freakin' great. His songs are just mesmerizing, and quite frankly, it makes me wonder if Dan is not possibly insane. His song structures are so erractic and always surprising, completely unconventional. His musicianship is absolutely A-plus. His lyrics, well, what hasn't been said already about Dan's bizarre beat-poetry lyrics? I can't help but be drawn into his madness! He kinda fascinates me.
"European Oils" stands out for its classical, cascading piano playing, that gets rather maniacal towards the end, and for its "f-bomb" in the song which kinda made me laugh out loud the first time I heard it. (I know, I know --- Dan's got a penchant for cussing, but in this song, he really highlights it and it makes me laugh.) But the absolute stand-out track is without a doubt "Painter In Your Pocket", which starts out acoustic and rather Robyn Hitchcock-ian, and then gets a little dreamy with some sparse moody guitars and feedback, that hypnotic melancholy bass line, the jazzy Sea-and-Cake-ish guitar work...I mean, oh my gracious, the song sets off butterflies in my stomach! janice.03.06)
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