This ain't no holiday but it always turns out this way / Destroyer's Rubies

Okaaaay, as the subject line suggests i'm off on holiday tomorrow for a few weeks. First to Nashville, then to Boston for a day or two, and then a week in Maine. Until then you'll have to keep yourself amused with some of the other supergood blogs on the list to the right. I recommend each and every one of 'em. Until I return, have a good few weeks/glastonbury/whatever you're doing!

Howwwever there is time for one more post. The most recent album by songmeister Destroyer (or Daniel Bejar as he's known to his friends and to fans of New Pornographers, his other main project), Destroyer's Rubies, quite easily made it onto my list of the top albums of last year, and yet I don't think I ever posted any of it on here for people to hear. I think that this is one of those artists where many people are unaware of what they/he sound like purely because of the name. Which sounds like the name of a black metal band. In reality Bejar's music is a rather enigmatic mixture of highly poetic, almost stream-of-consciousness styled lyricism with a musical backing that takes in equal parts English pop (The Kinks, The Smiths, Billy Bragg) and AmeriCanadian indie rock. The easiest comparison one could make for some British fans would be to Luke Haines; Bejar's voice is extremely similar to the dour English hero of The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder, but the comparison kind of ends there, his overall style being far more open and embracing in its stance towards listeners. Bejar's music is both challenging and inviting, his words drawing you in but never tiring you due to the really fantastic knack for melody that is always twisting the songs in a different direction with each minute that passes by.

Destroyer's Rubies is his sixth LP and in my opinion probably his strongest to date after 2001's Streethawk, but really his entire catalogue is very consistent in terms of quality. It's out on Merge in the US and Rough Trade over here, and is mega-recommended. A couple of my real highlights from Rubies (another being the fantastic 9 and a half minute opening track) are up below. Enjoy, and i'll speak to you all again in a few weeks!

Destroyer - European Oils
Destroyer - Priest's Knees