DESTROYER
Destroyer’s Rubies
Merge
·Don’t call it a comeback – Dan Bejar’s new album plays as a unified whole and is reminiscent of his first recording, Streethawk: A Seduction.
It’s easy to consider Dan Bejar’s newest incarnation of Destroyer’s Rubies as a true return to form after the occasionally shaky This Night and Your Blues albums, flirting respectively with lengthy reverb-tunnel guitar workouts and stripped-back acoustic storytelling. While that’s not to say either album isn’t strong in its own right (because they both are), Destroyer’s Rubies is the first record since Streethawk: A Seduction to play as a unified whole and comes off as the perfect finale to a rock odyssey trilogy the scale of which was perhaps not entirely clear until now. Consider This Night as the big epic intro piece – mostly show, a touch shallow. Your Blues brings the plot development – it’s deep, sure, but where’d all the explosions go? Finally, the finale – Rubies is a stunner, start to finish, on all levels, and Bejar knows it.
Rubies makes for a lyrical exclamation point at the end of Bejar’s lengthy trio, acting as fine proof of Destroyer’s fulfilment of the promises laid out on Streethawk: A Seduction. Coming at rock music with the notion of musical movements over simple verses and choruses, the songs of Rubies are a master class in expanding horizons and breaking rules. Climaxes come in unexpected form – opener "Rubies," for one, ends with a lo-fi acoustic re-telling of the previous seven widescreen Technicolor minutes, stripped down bare. No wonder Bejar’s contributions to The New Pornographers’ last two albums felt so half-assed and disinterested – the dude’s head was busy working out the angles for Rubies, keeping everything secret until it (and we) were ready.
Manifestos take time. Destroyer’s gone and made his, and it’s diamond sharp.
|
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.