Destroyer are not so much destroyers of worlds as destroyers of methodology. Dan Bejar’s impressive Canadian experimental art rock outfit seem to start each new record – or perhaps finish each record – with a process of unlearning, a period of time in which to recalibrate, reconceptualise and rewire. Nevertheless, there are some things you cannot unlearn, and Dan’s Boogie, Destroyer’s fourteenth album played by a decades-established seven-strong band, sounds magnificent from the outset, a tribute more than anything to doing this job for so long.
Opener ‘The Same Thing as Nothing at All’ is stately and sumptuous, with intricate lines of walking piano and rolling percussion, all led by a swaggering, almost decadent bassline played by Bejar’s longtime musical foil, John Collins. The bass itself acts as a subtle voice that echoes and sometimes contradicts Bejar, and it adds to the hall of mirrors effect where fractured voices, unreliable narrators and bit part players take turns to take centre stage before going into hiding again.
If Destroyer have always been elusive then Dan’s Boogie plays on that slipperiness, especially on ‘Bologna’, a spine-tingling baroque pop dramedy full of sinuous canal-ways and intrigue. Moreover, everything is underpinned by an enticing breakbeat and garnered with vertiginous orchestral spikes that are redolent of downbeat masters Portishead. Even Bejar himself takes a backseat, deferring mostly to Fiver’s Simone Schmidt, who takes the lion’s share of the lines. “I struggled singing the first and third verses, the most important parts of the song,” Bejar revealed when the song was released in January. “They needed gravity and grit. The threat of disappearing needed to be real. So I called Simone.” The cover art, with a disconsolate Dan looking into a mirror, apparently depicts him as a jobbing actor of little consequence staring into the cerebral abyss in an Italian greenroom. ‘Cataract Time’, meanwhile, offers contrasting moods between the desperation and brokenness of the lyrics with the rather jaunty eight-minute accompaniment replete with filigree harps.
If Dan’s Boogie sounds like it might be morose, then there are plenty of laughs too, especially on the overwrought ‘I Materialize’ which is proverbially pulled off stage with a vaudeville hook before it has a chance to fully manifest. Contrarian as ever, Destroyer’s last album ‘Labyrinthitis’ was arguably more straightforward in its electronic pop presentation, whereas ‘Dan’s Boogie’ is less boogiesome than its predecessor but infinitely more labyrinthine. There’s plenty to explore and that’s without even mentioning Bejar’s beautifully crafted, sardonic lyrics, but don’t get too lost because Destroyer will be off somewhere else again soon. And they’ll no doubt have junked the methodology that brought you Dan’s Boogie by then too.
