One reliable aspect of a Destroyer album is that it will mark a change in style from the Canadian band’s previous release. But regardless of the genre or genres—glam rock, country, synth-pop, and more—that the group dabbles in, another constant in its music is frontman Daniel Bejar’s patented sardonic worldview.
Destroyer’s 14th studio album, Dan’s Boogie, reportedly ended a period of writer’s block for the singer-songwriter, and the songs here sound like they were conceived in a jam session. Bejar, who forced himself to sit down at the piano and play for an hour a day, freestyled the lyrics to tracks like “Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World,” improvising his vocals in one take.
Throughout Dan’s Boogie, the range of genres is complemented by lush production and creeping dissonance. “The Ignoramus of Love” flirts with country, while the backing vocals of “Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World” add a touch of classic pop to Bejar’s free associations.
The eight-minute “Cataract Time” emerges as the album’s centerpiece. With its jazzy filigrees, it wouldn’t sound out of place on 2011’s Kaputt. The track stands out here for how uncommonly direct it is, concluding with a lengthy sax solo. Throughout, Bejar confronts the indignities of aging and approaches the criticism by strangers by seeing the virtues of simply living past them.
Like Father John Misty, with whom Destroyer recently toured, Bejar dabbles in deconstructed adult contemporary music. “Dan’s Boogie” portrays Bejar as a lounge singer whose lovelorn reveries go sideways into observations like “stockbroker weeps for the ’80s/Makes beats for the ladies in gray.” But while Josh Tillman incorporates some aspects of his personal life into his characters, Dan’s Boogie resists such obvious personalization.
At their worst, such as that improvised section of “Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World,” Bejar’s lyrics can feel like the product of a magnetic poetry kit. But in songs like the inviting “British Columbian Prayer,” Dan’s Boogie locates a newfound tenderness in Destroyer’s music, albeit without spelling out its source.
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