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

Really love this record!

I feel that after Trouble in Dreams, he's been on automatic pilot lyrically, and putting more energy into coming up with a big presentational concept for the arrangements/production on each album than writing songs. Same lyrical tics, same chord progressions over and over.

I didn't really like Have We Met either, but I did just watch all three videos from the album. They communicated a lot more than the songs alone. Maybe he needs to write a bunch of songs for a movie, or some other external framework to give his songs context.

I also adore this album, and the Philadelphia show in March was sublime.

My friend sent me this when I enthused about the new one in an email, thought it was interesting: https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/destroyer-dan-bejar-nine-favourite-songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r_N-BMBJMo

new album labyrinthitis is out 25 march

quite an interesting single, it's unusually hard for him

love it.

Been completely addicted to the new single, it has some of his best lyrics imo.

I love the bit in the video where it says "DE-STROY-ER" for the line "insert three syllables here"

a few tracks in & he's super into new order again but the results are way cooler than on ken

he's still coming up with ways to make what should be well-worn ground for him feel fairly fresh & inspired, another great album & up with his best

it's most similar to the last one but more upbeat, denser & weirder

yeah i really love this album

gets pretty close to being a kaputt sequel at times but always keeps things weirder

where are you hearing it?

it's floating around out there, unusually early for these days

For me, his last really convincing record was Trouble in Dreams. His stylistic shift with Kaputt made sense, but the actual songs and lyrics since then have felt like Destroyer-by-numbers. I think he feels this shift, he's alluded to a change in mindset around 2010.

imo his only weak album since kaputt is ken.

i think the shift in sound from his previous folk/glam thing to the new sophisti-pop-adjacent palette from kaputt onwards has been a big improvement & fit his vocal approach much better. but i don't really love his old material or anything, i only really go back to your blues & rubies, so i can understand how someone who absolutely loved what he was doing before could be let down by his newer sound.

I wouldn't say I dislike the new style; I think the songwriting changed at the same time, but the two didn't have to go hand-in-hand. His lyrics don't hang together like they used to, it's like they're off-the-cuff jottings meant to sound as "Destroyer" as possible.
Aside from maybe one or two songs per record, all I get from them is semi-cynical mood music.

i haven't heard full destroyer albums for a while because i'm lazy but i'm obsessed with "crimson tide" and feel like i could also be with the new single. i think the lyrics for both are incredible. the new one manages to achieve this encapsulation of what it's like to drive across the desert now in 2022 when the climate is changing and the world is full of crazy shit in one line. the opening of "crimson tide" through the line about being on the lookout for anything that moves is just devastating. i don't hear cynicism, i hear a bunch of different strategies for survival.

also the "crimson tide" video is so so good.

the change in lyrical approach he's discussed was just becoming more restrained, so there's less of him trying to cram his dense poetry into his rock songs, which allows him to take a more relaxed vocal approach. he's gone back and forth with exactly how dense vs. relaxed he gets.

his lyrics have their ups and downs, but i'm not a huge lyrics person. sometimes they're very compelling and sometimes they're basically self-parody but still endearing. i can get how if you loved his older, denser lyrical approach you'd be disappointed by his move away from that post-trouble in dreams.

poison season was pretty dense, wasn't it? i didn't return to that one much, felt like a self-conscious throwback

Another new one. Didn't realise the album had already leaked

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

Eat the Wine is closer to the vibes of the whole record than Tintoretto. Also, it probably has the least interesting lyrics of the record, it's a groove tho.

Anyone who's eaten wine with fork and knife on a Saturday night will relate.

I still think it's good mind you, maybe because it doesn't keep up with the three opening lines which are fantastic: Unfounded accusations // "Ruff, ruff" goes the beagle to the terrier // Been meaning to wear my hair like this for ages.

The rhythm section throughout the record is some of the best they've done. I am no musician so my understanding of these things are limited, but it sounds like from Have We Met they found a formula that just elevates everything else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3hFZkFgs-g

video for "june", one of the real highlights on this album

https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/destroyer-labyrinthitis/

and a good interview, though once again he mentions they started out with a cooler idea than what they ended up with:

"they set out to make what Bejar calls a “high-energy Cher record.” They imagined an unceasing four-on-the-floor beat going through an entire side of the LP, with Bejar spewing his cryptic musings between the pounding bass hits."

you can hear the remnants of that idea in "suffer" and "all my pretty dresses" (a little of which is at the end of that video) but they didn't end up really going for it.

dump him!

i like the concepts and the lyrics but i'm not feeling the music tbh

i take it back, the music is good

June is good

Looking forward to the instrumentation album

*instrumental

The new song/video is genius. I'm excited for 'all my pretty dresses' too

album is out, it's still excellent, one of his very best

"it's in your heart now" is like, if robert fripp played lead on something from disintegration

sounds good on first listen

Has it been put back in the U.K.?

looks like the uk physical release is delayed until june?

https://bellaunion.ochre.store/release/266901-destroyer-labyrinthitis

"it's in your heart now" is like, if robert fripp played lead on something from disintegration

Late getting around to this one and haven't finished my first listen yet, but I wanted to call this post out as being very much otm.

I'm recent to Destroyer, having only heard Kaputt this year, and only now another with his latest, but it just struck me on "Tintoretto" that there's a David Tibet aspect to him. The mystique, the spoken word full of pathos and disassociated, attraction for piano and ambient/dance electronics, formula applicable to any sound, the fan obsession. Maybe a bit of a stretch. Anyway, I like the new album.

Obsessed with the second half of ‘June’.

new album is my fav thing he's done in a long time

its good feels like a logical extension of the last one but more uptempo

"all my pretty dresses" an instant fav, beautiful song

someone should make a soundboard that embeds additional gratuitous sound effects into "It Takes a Thief."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2f_7OCWXtc

full show video

wish audio was better

Saw him live for the first time recently. He seemed a little shy at first. It took him a few songs to get in the zone (the zone is brimstone and wire), but once he got there he was pretty good. He gave me the biggest introvert vibes I've ever seen off a live performer of his caliber.

They played actually very little of the new album! But the production on the record is so weird that I guess it'd be hard to reproduce live. It was cool to hear a lot of older material. They closed the show with a couple Kaputt tracks, which made me happy.

I've seen Destroyer three times, and, perhaps unusually, Bejar seemed most comfortable at the show where he played solo acoustic.

Why do you say that might be unusual? Makes sense to me, given his beginnings.