Monday, April 7, 2008

Destroyer - Trouble in Dreams... yeah, the trouble part is right.



I've been sitting on a this Destroyer post for what has been at least a couple of weeks, since I'm not exactly sure what to say about the new album Trouble in Dreams. But, rather than gouging my eyes out watching another Raptors game, I thought I'd give it a go; because, honestly, if I watch another Raptors game this year I'm liable to pull a Youzhny and crack myself in the head with my tennis racquet.

Dan Bejar (Destroyer) has always been my favourite part of the New Pornographers – with Neko Case a close second – as his more wandering lyrical music always seemed to be a nice fit with tNPs poppy sensibility. So, when I first heard Destroyer (Destroyer’s Rubies, recommended by Kyle I think) I was kind of taken aback that they didn’t sound at all like tNPs and was admittedly a little turned off. It took a while, but I really came around on Rubies and there was a period where I listened to the opening 4 songs – Rubies, Your Blood, European Oils, Painter in Your Pocket – a lot.

That said, for me, there's no stretch like that on TiD and I've found myself listening to 'Blue Flower/Blue Flame' then getting about halfway through the next song, and giving up and moving on to something else. And, the more I listen to Destroyer I just find myself wishing that he'd just take all that creative energy and Carl Newman would let him take the reins to tNPs.

In my mind, a pretty forgettable album, with a couple of tracks 'Blue Flowers/Blue Flame', 'Foam Hands' that I'll still be listening to in a few months.

[mp3] Blue Flower/Blue Flame
[mp3] Foam Hands

I prefer to remember the better times...

[mp3] An Actor's Revenge (from Your Blues [2004] - my fav Destroyer song of all time)
[mp3] Myriad Harbour (from The New Pornographer's Challengers [2007])


And this is just wicked awesome...

1 comment:

Allan said...

I'm going through the same experience with TiD. I'll probably do a review sometime soon but I've had the album on my computer for 3 months and I've barely gotten into it.