Destroyer - Kaputt (2011)

I really am excited to hear this, but sort of worried that I may like the same indie rock record deej does. :/

I was relistening to Trouble In Dreams this afternoon and, while I still think it is his weakest full-length to date, I think it might be growing on me a little. I was just approaching it completely wrong, I think.

jeremy hovda is cute!

i thought trouble in dreams was great when it came out, but it's probably the weakest. at least i'm not drawn to listen to it as much as the others.

I guess I should clarify that I meant weakest post-Thief. I love everything since then, but I have a hard time diving into the stuff prior.

In it’s own way, it’s as aggressive in its aesthetic as any noise record

I like this, m@tt

grady stop trolling

i'm deej-policing, way diff from trolling

house of mirrors shit

thx k3vin and thanks for bringing back a favorite elementary nickname of mine :)

― dj plain ole m@tt (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, January 24, 2011 4:03 PM (29 minutes ago)

haha we talked about this i think - i was smells so it's all good

this sounds like Pet Shop Boys. I'm not surprised to see so much ILX luv

lol which pet shop boys song?

every Pet Shop Boys song basically. just take their electro backdrop and make it less upbeat and bumpin'. then add a pinch more variety in the form of smooth-jazz or whatever and there you go

if my uncle ellis had a vagina he'd be my aunt elanor rigby

doesn't mark post here...? the pfork review made me curious to hear this (even tho I haven't cared about anything this guy has been involved with since Mass Romantic) but then I was kina put off by the weird Death of a Ladies' Man tangent, especially since I disagree with his interpretation of that album (and its cover)

It doesn't sound at all like the Pet Shop Boys -- it comes closest to a couple of David Sylvian's early and mid eighties solo tracks, especially in their use of space and trumpet.

I have detested Bejar for years, and "Bay of Pigs" drove me out of the room, but he has never boasted so many attractive aural surfaces.

...but he has never boasted so many attractive aural floral surfaces.

That's the gayest sentence I've ever read.

I was kina put off by the weird Death of a Ladies' Man tangent, especially since I disagree with his interpretation of that album (and its cover)

so true, where did that come from?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/arts/music/25choice.html?_r=1&ref=arts

This guy's writing makes my hair hurt

its pretty goofy to me how self-conscious of the 'cheesiness' some of this writing is. lots of readers -- esp of like the ny times -- might not find it cheesy at all (its not like my dad thinks 'avalon' is cheesy). i mean, its a different move for indie rock i guess, but if u listen to more than just indie rock, its like telling ppl sade is worth listening to ... only if yr writing to a specific swath of ppl is that really a shocking development

iago galdston, i feel like maybe you should get a haircut? for the sake of your own head?

lots of us don't find Sade, Gaucho, and Avalon cheesy either. That's been my problem with the PFM and NYT reviews. It's funny: if you're under thirty, you have far less of a problem identifying the records I've mentioned as legitimate influences than if you grew up in a certain kind of eighties and nineties indie climate.

Taking into consideration my loathing for this man's voice for more than ten years, it's remarkable that I'm listening to it as much as I have been today; it's like the most indie of indie voices finally took seriously my request to listen to more Boz Scaggs.

and it's def better than Ariel fucking Pink

This guy put out a MIDI record before, it's not like he's averse to potentially cheesy sonic signifiers.

but now he's learned to sing with them

The only song I think is a total bomb is "Bay of Pigs."

good point Alfred. That stuff is part of our generation's discovery of the past and it lacks the vaguely dirty memories and "cheese" associations. My mom heard me playing Badfinger on some recent Christmas trip home and laughed out loud about how I was listening to "bubblegum". I guess, but it's not as if being played alongside now-obscure AM radio dreck in the '70s has any relevance to my "Baby Blue" listening experience, though it certainly does for her.

I like Mark Richardson very much but his review had a are-you-for-real poking-finger-into-cheek tone that was bizarre for a guy who I know loves a lot of the music I've mentioned.

Re: all the talk of critical reception: I'd be fascinated to what The Singles Jukebox make of this. d

Shoo, stray 'd'!

the d denotes your excitement

And a definitely think the 'smooth music' textures are being deployed lovingly and somewhat 'authentically', rather than the lol80s cheeky irony that Pink or the chillwave crew might have.

i dont get 'cheeky irony' from pink & i thought chill wave was supposed to be seeped in nostalgia not irony

its ok we all get confused abt the reasons we're not supposed to like music sometimes

lol

Hmm the point is maybe that the Destroyer record actually has the production value and budget to replicate the 'smooth music' style, and thus it comes off as less of an approximation or self-conscious affect.

i dont get 'cheeky irony' from pink

deej otm

I get "inept" from Ariel Pink.

Like Pink is gleefully aware that he's sneaking these subversive little stories under the coiffured synths...Bejar just sounds regal, he owns it like Fagen or L. Cohen.

the ny times thing talk al stewart "year of the cat" as ref point and that definitely hits it for me, though it never occured to me until i read it

He doesn’t seem to be pointing at any of this music out of love or fashion, or at least he doesn’t want us to think so. He seems to be pulling different strands together to make a nice dressing for poems that suggest a comfortable blankness of spirit.

WAHT

tomorrow i am going to go to the record store, buy "destroyer - kaputt", make some burritos, smoke a joint, and listen to this record while eating burritos

^^^like this plan

"smoke weed listen to destroyer"

I should add, though, that I actually *prefer* Pink's rambling, faux-incompetent songwriting style to Bejar's. Although the latter inhabits the textures in a smoother sense, he cannot nearly level up to the melodic gifts Ferry or Fagen bring to this sound palette.

ie it just betrays how hollow his songwriting is when presented in such a vivid setting.

i like both of them -- destroyer is avalon & pink was more steely dan

love this record but invoking Fagan??...."destroyer your arms are too short to box w.god"

kinda jealous of flopson's upcoming day

wait, destroyer's songwriting is hollow?