Destroyer - Kaputt (2011)

Every time I listen different lyrics pop out, like "I haven't seen you ages/I still fly into rages at the mention of your name...Christine."

Phantom of the Opera ref, IMO.

― Tyler/Perry's "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" (jaymc), Thursday, January 27, 2011 7:11 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

More an intertextual reference to "Painter in Your Pocket," but sure.

xxp i had to load up billboard.com to make sure you weren't clowning and that the decemberists actually have a #1 album

wtf

Yeah, with a whopping 94,000 records sold. Social Distortion got to number three, with something like 50,000. Those numbers aren't shabby for indies, but I bet it feels like coasting in on a technicality, especially with Taylor Swift still selling millions her first couple weeks.

xxp i had to load up billboard.com to make sure you weren't clowning and that the decemberists actually have a #1 album

wtf

― ciderpress, Thursday, January 27, 2011 2:41 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

They only sold that many because Amazon was offering it for like 3.99.

haaa, was just kidding. heard this record is going to get a 10.0 from p4k though for real.

kaputt 10th anniversary blu-ray tetraphonic audio remaster w/ 20 minutes of bonus kosmische will be a definite 10.0

Just in case lack of a legal way to hear this for free is holding anyone back, the whole album is streaming on soundcloud:

http://soundcloud.com/hypem/sets/kaputt/s-I2Ja2

― gr8080, Thursday, 27 January 2011 17:01 (5 hours ago)

no "the laziest river" ;_;

ok so just now hearing "the laziest river" and wow! it's no instrumental but wow!

I like this album a lot. I can understand how people could hear Steely Dan in this, but I think this has more of an early-80s sequencer vibe - so I'd say a closer reference point would be Donald Fagen's solo joint The Nightfly or Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out", or Pet Shop Boys, or Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man, or Ian Dury - or basically any mid-80s record that featured a guy with an un-commercial sounding voice singing highbrow lyrics over sequencer-driven, dance-inspired music.

So I just bought the vinyl version and downloaded the digital copy and I'm wondering how they relate to each other. Are they exactly the same? Does the epic mp3 for The Laziest River contain the entirety of side 3?

y

the world is just bones

the world is black stones

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20458872,00.html

Read through to the "yacht rock" reference. Should generate a comment or two...

(By the way, I like Bejar's shirts. Anyone know where I can get similar ones?)

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20459529_20901309,00.html

Sorry. For the shirt question above...

I like this. Reminds me a bit of our dear (ilx-)departed Momus.

Completely under this album's spell.

It's sending me off to a far away place in my mind. And in such a velvet-y smooth way too. No 'blast from the past' but a soft tumbling back through the years. Ah nostalgia... It's not melancholy, rather the French spleen. In a highly enjoyable way. Am hearing most of the names O. Nate checked too, but luckily it doesn't get in the way.

Expect to be playing this one for quite a while.

The thing that strikes me about this album is that, despite a few elements that reference 70s/80s music, this sounds totally modern to me. It really doesn't strike me as particularly retro at all. The production and sound quality is really top notch.

It is also kind of interesting that the vocals and lyrics kind of seem to take a back seat somewhat, at least compared to some of his other albums where the focus is totally on his singing.

kinda, sorta.... ugh, I need an editor.

otm, i hear traces of this sound in many contemporary artists: emeralds + arp for the synthy kosmische stuff, efdemin + isolee's new ones for the FM style synths and clear production, cut copy with their tango in the night sound on that one song, italians do it better have been pilfering that disco sound forever, etc

it seems like because destroyer is one of the first /indie rock proper/ releases to take inspiration from these sounds, its being unfairly compared to 60-odd years of rock canon

Ha, Spencer, I was thinking the same thing - definitely reminds me of some of the lusher stuff from say Tender Pervert. But yeah my wife said it reminded her of Pet Shop Boys vocally, too. Largely enjoying it in a different way than I enjoy either of those aformentioned artists, mind you.

at the start of his career many journalists compared Al Stewart and Neil Tennant's voices.

My wife mentioned this reminded her of James. Definitely the vocals have a similar timbre, although Dan Bejar is much less strident in his delivery.

^ That is interesting!
I am fascinated by Tim Booth's idea of 'lyrics' and def see the parallels.

i kinda hated the earlier destroyer stuff i'd heard but this one is great.

I had a Destroyer listening binge yesterday, and although I'm probably wrong, this is his first album that doesn't reference his own work or works of other artists lyrically much, or at all, right? Contrast that with Destroyer's Rubies, which is full of references to his own back catalog as well as quite a few others.

just got the vinyl, and lp 2 is really noisy--crackles all over.

: (

anyone else?

I actively dislike Destroyer but this is the first "indie rock" album I've heard in a long while that has fascinated me so much. Pretty fantastic. What do long-time fans think of this? I think it has crossover appeal, in the sense of crossing over to people who never bothered with Destroyer in the first place.

xp same

Compared to his other records, there are less jokes and more instrumental breaks

just got the vinyl, and lp 2 is really noisy--crackles all over.

why I stopped buying new vinyl...

Yeah, I've had some bad experiences with new vinyl too.

I had a weird dream last night about being on some really luxuious yacht circa 1982 while songs from this played in the background. Then the owner of the yacht flew into a coke-fueled rage and started destroying the wood panelling while the line "threw his watercolors into the ocean" from Rubies looped over and over. Maybe I need to lay off this album for awhile?

nah, stick with it, I wanna see where this is going

Agreed that the 2nd disc of the vinyl doesn't seem to be pressed well; first disc sounds really good, but 2nd is noisy for me as well.

Did we post this video yet?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf-ONpLXzGs

just got the vinyl, and lp 2 is really noisy--crackles all over.

: (

anyone else?

― nerve_pylon, Sunday, February 6, 2011 12:12 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark

got mine this weekend, and only noticed a couple ticks at the end of the sides. no biggie, and probably not enough for merge to do another run...

yah i posted the video the day it was released

I bought the vinyl and it all sounds really good.

i was thinking today while listening to the album that i'm kind of skeptical of ilm ppl who otherwise don't f/w dan bejar or think he's some otherwise boring indie crank who are into this record cause of the awesome chill slick production. i think the playing is really interesting--it was really enlightening to hear that all the musicians recorded in isolation & u can really feel the disembodiment imo--but i can't really imagine someone just passively ignoring the vocals & still getting something out of the album. for me all destroyer albums are abt a really strong central personality & an ineffable feeling of connection & wkiw. trying to imagine someone coming at the album w/o a willingness to engage with that dimension of it... but maybe im just strawmanning & u all think dan bejar is cool as fuck too

i'm skeptical of your skepticism

i'm basically ambivalent about his "personality" but willing to see how it goes after repeat listens because the production is awesome, chill, and slick

ya i mean i guess i'm more just curious as to what you really find valuable & interesting abt it. i get that ppl are interested in the aesthetic

listening to it today & thinking abt how most things i've read about it (excluding the p4k review which is the best thing i've read there in a while) have been so narrowly focused on the production & style switch-up and i was like o wait that's not why i care abt destroyer. by all means it's cool and good and interesting, but i don't think that's where the essential content lies, i feel like a meaningful engagement w/ the album requires that you really warm up to him

*i get that ppl are interested in the aesthetic but i'm curious to hear someone of your opinion explain more clearly

his other albums sound annoying

this album sounds awesome

his other albums sound annoying

this album sounds awesome

haven't read the p4k review yet. and i haven't listened to destroyer in a long time, but in a different musical context i hear his voice and read his personality differently. i never really had a very fleshed-out impression of "who he is" tho, so i'm not sure how the new aesthetic effects how you hear him. it just doesn't seem like much of a stretch to see him as a different sort of guy when he's singing over different music, especially for people who weren't too invested in him in the first place.

xpost

trying to imagine someone coming at the album w/o a willingness to engage with that dimension of it... but maybe im just strawmanning & u all think dan bejar is cool as fuck too

well its still recognizably bejar on this record i do think hes softer, less cutting, less layered & reflexive idk. i mean i think you can like the destroyer of kaputt and not love the destroyer of streethawk, yknow? i compared it to leonard cohen's 'i'm your man' upthread & i meant that more than just musically i think theres a similar shift in his personality/tone/way of approaching the listener

i mean disregarding everything else but the lyrics & approach its difficult to imagine the destroyer of kaputt singing "you spent the 90s cowering" or "i'm a tastemaker & i kill things/i'm not a tastemaker & i kill things"

But here the persona seems even more sharply defined. Singing these songs, Bejar comes over as the wizened ex-playboy; he's indulged every vice, come through the other side, and now looks on amused. The cover of Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man, a record that seems to serve as a spiritual (though not sonic) father to this one, shows this figure in its quintessential form. On that sleeve, we see a man in sharp but slightly disheveled dress, a cigarette dangling from a couple of fingers; beautiful people are seated at the nightclub table, ready for another night of glamor and pleasure.

Leonard Cohen in that image has a sense of swagger, and you want to pull up a chair, have a drink, and hear him hold forth on the topic of his choice. The figure inside the songs of Kaputt understands the allure of this life while understanding equally its futility.