Release Date: 03.18.08
The Destroyer record Trouble In Dreams is kind of weird. Admittedly, I listened to this album hopped up on cold and allergy medicine, so my perception of Daniel Bejar’s perplexing lyrics was completely strung out. I thought my Dayquil was doing overtime and causing me to hallucinate…
But the peculiarity of Trouble In Dreams continued on even when I listened to the full-length sober, the unusual feel of the record actually being its selling point and trademark. Dreams is a very surreal, poignant, and artfully-crafted album, carrying a weight of odd nostalgia and serenity to it, often times delivering a warmth I’ve seen on few records.
Opening track “Blue Flower/Blue Frame” brings a sweet tinge as the official start of the record, soft acoustic guitar dancing around the light plucks of a piano with sharper strums infused at breaking points. The pace picks up on “Dark Leaves Form A Thread,” the drum line taking the front-and-center spotlight in keeping cadence and flow.
Bejar’s style, most often compared to Pavement, Guided by Voices, and David Bowie’s early collection, also teeters on Bob Dylan’s storytelling vices and if Devendra Banhart was cast in Velvet Goldmine. “Shooting Rockets (From The Desk Of Night’s Ape)” presents a shoegazed whirl of angsty reverb, Bejar’s voice encompassing that slow drawl of a scratchy throat that made his contemporaries famous. “Plaza Trinidad” finds a musical-feel, piano-bar track busting at the seams of cheeky words and grandiose arrangements. Sometimes I feel like I know where this album is going, and then all of a sudden Bejar sits my ass down and goes “No way, lady friend. Listen to this,” and I am overcome with such a fuckery of anomalous noise, it makes me stop and wonder in sheer delight. Needless to say, this album is awesome to listen to both intoxicated and clear-minded. If you’re in the mood for innate narratives and a distinct voice, Destroyer is where it’s at.
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