Destroyer - ken

It's nowhere near as good as Poison Season. Nostormo is right, it's a very tired sounding record with him sounding like he's on autopilot.

album art rather poor come to think of it, ime often a sign of fatigue/autopilot (with Dylan you can mostly judge the records by their covers)

I think a big part of what's lacking is the band, as this is his first 'solo' album since Your Blues (though that was great). he's got a really great band at the moment and fully utilising them, instead of just bringing them in for a few parts each here and there, would have made it so much more texturally interesting

Sadface. Very right about how good his band is, though.

ok so I got hold of a digital copy and 3 songs in this sounds great?

https://pitchfork.com/features/song-by-song/destroyers-dan-bejar-decodes-every-song-on-his-new-album-ken/

oooh, decoding!

I think it's quite good! Not sure why the lukewarm response. It's a bit "different" than the last two - which I absolutely loved and I probably put Poison Season above Kaputt at this point. It's a bit more like the pre-Kaputt material, for reasons stated above. I think lyrically it's as strong as anything and it will reveal its depths.

agree, sounds good to my ears as well and I always enjoy his lyrics

interesting to see all the British references, first the Suede song, now there's Cure (Disintegration), new romantics, Oliver Twist, Pete Doherty, Stones...

This album is great. Think his lyrics still have a wit to them that I find appealing and the tunes are pretty catchy, if maybe a little straight forward.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/ken/

This is a weird review. As if the reviewer had only listened to a couple of songs from the album.

I'm pretty excited for this now, based on all the reviews. Hopefully pick it up today.

i'm certainly enjoying this, it just doesn't reach the same heights as the last two (though anything is underwhelming compared to kaputt) and it's his least ambitious album in a long time

yeah, that review is weirdly off

I just listened to the whole album.
For all the Cure talk, I hear more New Order touches and I really like the sound overall (much more than the previous album).
That said, the songs don't seem very strong.
I'll see after a few times.

After a few times I begin to like this a lot.
I didn't particularly like "Tinseltown" as a single but in the context of the album, it's very enjoyable.

this album rules

it's a return to the style of Rubies and Trouble in Dreams, with those slightly weird psychedelic melodies that Bejar excells at, incorporating parts of the sonic palette (80s synth, verby trumpet) from Kaputt and Poison Season

personally I like it more than Poison Season but maybe it's just that I'm happy he seems to be revisiting a style of writing I'd been missing

on another note, I like how careful and serious he is about his lyrics, abstract and aloof as they may sometimes sound:

Just that first line: “I can’t pay for this, all I’ve got is money.” I really like it, but it made me feel uncomfortable right away, writing it and singing it.

I've gone back to this to see if it grows on me. It has in places, but overall I still think it's really disappointing. There are several songs where I'd just rather listen to Savage Night At The Opera instead. Rome to Stay Lost totally pass me by. Sky's Grey, Saw You At The Hospital, A Light Travels Down The Catwalk and Le Regle Du Jeu would make a brilliant EP.

I'm a big fan of this, I was on the fence for the first few listens but now prefer it to Poison Season and about the same as Kaputt. Stay Lost should be a hit!

On first listen, it felt like something was missing from this, some key element. Will try again and see if it improves.

this didn't grab me on first listen (which were under ideal conditions for me -- long drive across the desert), but i'm planning to return to it

except for tinseltown, which is excellent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUIZRcZEITo

the ken songs really sound so much better live

https://music.apple.com/us/album/have-we-met/1481871751

new album Have We Met out Jan 31, the single "Crimson Tide" appears to be out tomorrow. there's a preview there and it sounds like the synths haven't gone anywhere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mFTgJQtCPk

The video is not available in my country. Fuck that.

Anyway, I really liked ken - not as much as Poison Season, which I thought was just as good as Kaputt, but more than most, I think. So I'm looking forward to this.

i like this new song but i haven't actually listened to the last two destroyer records. new order-y but with a lot of negative space

The last two albums have good stuff on them, they're just rather uneven.

I’m not sure there’s much of a song but on first listen I like the production and arrangements a lot.

Lovely stuff.

He may be in the midst of the Push The Sky Away phase of his career

That said, I'm definitely on board with any song titled "The Television Music Supervisor"

new song sounds great

this is wonderful! i liked ken alright enough but the arrangement is a step up from anything on that

What a weird video lol

Destroyer’s Dan Bejar initially conceived of Have We Met as a Y2K album. He was already active during the era but not heard overhead in a cafe or salon, which is perhaps what the idea of the Y2K sound evokes nearly two decades later. Bejar assigned frequent producer and bandmate John Collins the role of layering synth and rhythm sections over demos with the period-specific Björk, Air, and Massive Attack in mind, but he soon realized the sonic template was too removed from Destroyer’s own, and the idea of a concept was silly anyway. So he abandoned it and gave Collins the most timeless instruction of all: “Make it sound cool.”

this is from the press release and i'm kinda annoyed that he gave up on that idea because that sounds like a great reference point for a destroyer album to me! i'm happy enough with more of the sophisti-new order that's largely defined him this decade on "crimson tide" though

eheh it does sound cool !

Rubies songwriting, Kaputt production.
Sounds good to me.

lol at "make it sound cool" that's bejar in a nutshell

i wouldn't call this kaputt production at all, that slinky synth funk angle is v different

it's a little different to kaputt but the closest he's come to it since (not that he's strayed that far either). a bit more propulsive instead of the way kaputt luxuriates in the endlessly soloing guitars, trumpets, and saxes

i can easily imagine "make it sound... cooool!" as one of his lyrics

nice of him to make sure kaputt 2 is in a different decade so he can have two AotDs

Yeah, it doesn't sound like Kaputt. otm "more propulsive".
Unfortunately the song is not very good, after listening to it a few times.

yeah I'm not particularly enamored with this

i listened to it like 15 times yesterday so i think it's probably good

i guess i did the same with Times Square though and then never really got on board with that record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmApPGE6Zio

this one's pretty good too, another synthpop track but with a different vibe to anything on ken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_qcSbi9WrM

three for three

Talking of synthesisers, any love for the 2022 album Labyrinthitis?

Destroyer "Have We Met" out 1/31/20

there was discussion in the have we met thread

i think it's probably his best since kaputt, though it notably falls off in the last two tracks

Ah thanks ufo. I'll head over there.