album of the week: 11.2

Destroyer

Kaputt

(2011)

why you'll love it: less snobby than most Destroyer albums. Chill music

why you'll hate it: weak jazz for boring people!

No excuses for this early 2011 release. I've been deliberately avoiding until I came across a low risk deal for it. Destroyer won me over in 2006 with Destroyer's Rubies. My attraction turned into impatience just as quickly with the release of Trouble in Dreams (2008). Dan Bejar's songwriting suddenly became predictably rote. His European quirks quickly turned to annoying affectations. This is coming from someone who likes The Mars Volta, and Animal Collective… Bejar sounds hella pretentious. Intentional or not, he sounds more like a character than a person at most times.

So why am I reviewing his 2011 release, Kaputt? I was promised a change in style. That style turned out to be… smooth jazz. This sounds like a damn Kenny G album. I feel like an old man when I listen to this. A rich old man, at least. Like I'm driving a Bentley at night. These are very well produced, long, deliberate, planned out songs. It's high quality work. Not, something I would call outstanding in any way though. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you how this… elevator music is a breakthrough release. But I'll tell you what; it solves most of the problems I've had with Destroyer.

These songs do away with a lot of Bejar's faux-European cliches. No more pointless "ba-daa-baaa-laaahh"s. There are still a few arbitrary name dropping of European nations and the occasional backhanded "uncultured American" remarks which seem to serve no purpose but to make himself or the listener seem smart. Only in the closing song does he fall into his old trappings, but that's excusable, I guess. The old fans deserve to have a bone thrown to them.

… Maybe I overthink Bajar's quirks too much, but regardless, that stuff that gets under my skin isn't found so often on Kaputt. It's just a nice album. It's vey good background music, aside from that lingering fear that it may turn you into a Michael Bolton fan.