As the wealthy American underground wept

Play it: Destroyer Destroyer's Rubies

Two of the best albums of the year were dropped on us today, Two Gallants What the Toll Tells (not Rhapavailable) and the much anticipated Destroyer's Rubies from Dan Bejar's Destroyer. Taking the sentiments and pop structures of Streethawk; and the instrumentation and looseness of This Night; (and borrowing phrases and more from every previous Destroyer album;) Destroyer's Rubies is like a mosaic of all of Dan Bejar's best work as Destroyer. Lyrically, the Vancouver, B.C. native has always been a giant, but seemed (at times) barely able to keep up with himself, whereas now his usual poetic couplets are tossed off with such swagger and confidence, it's hard not to fall in-step behind his every stacatto'd syllable.

I have this theory that when The New Pornographers formed and Bejar made his power pop contributions, his own Destroyer project moved further away from pop as a result, whether consious or not. I'd argue now that the Pornographers, with Twin Cinema, have themselves moved a little away from their poppier beginnings, Bejar's able to go back to pre-Pornographer ways, ala Streethawk and the like. Not that a person has only a finite amount of pop they can write in a year, or anything, but it's only natural to keep them differentiated, dontcha think?

Regardless of where Bejar's head was at in the authoring, it's an amazing album. But don't take my word for it:

The Onion A/V club gives it a score of 100
Dusted gives it a 90
Pitchfork explains why they didn't give it a 10.0

More:
Already a Destroyer's Rubies Drinking Game?
Bejar-O-Matic Lyric Dispenser
The Destroyer Wiki
Six Eyes' Dan Bejar Interview (Feb 6, 2006)
"The Enigma Next Door" Discorder (February, 2006)

Previously
No, I wasn't born to rock (Destroyer This Night)
The New Pornographers' Twin Cinema

tags: playlist, music, dan bejar, destroyer, new pornographers