This is the tenth record from Destroyer aka Dan Bejar, who’s also a member of the New Pornographers and Swan Lake (with members of Wolf Parade), and is great stuff. Lyrically and vocally it’s a bit Bowie, a bit T-Rex and a bit Syd Barret. Musically it’s like a more streamlined acoustic-heavy version of all the above.
It’s big, ambitious, carnivalesque, visionary, melodramatic and vaguely psychedelic. So there are winding guitars (sometimes eastern sounding), underwater string sounds, and organ lines, and a vocal delivery that’s arch and actorly. Unlike his 70s influences, the world of Destroyer is neither the psychedelic world seen straight, nor the straight world on acid. I think it’s actually the straight world seen straight, and frankly that’s pretty weird.
Key track: ‘Dark Leaves on a Thread’