CD Review

As the fancy-pants voice of power-pop kings the New Pornographers, Dan Bejar’s nasally, beatnik delivery adds a quirky charm to Neko Case and Carl Newman’s more typically charismatic radio pipes, but on his own as Destroyer, Bejar sometimes seems lonely and lost without the layered accompaniment of a seven-piece band. His rhythmic but often amelodic spoken word vocals beg for something to sing along to, but ultimately Bejar’s Dylanesque word skills and familiar songcraft save Destroyer’s Rubies from being nothing more than great open mic night poetry.

And it would be great poetry. Bejar’s storytelling shines through in the silver screen drama of “A Dangerous Woman Up to a Point” and “European Oils,” but the spare drum and fife rhythm and even thinner acoustic guitar on “Rubies” leave his East/West politics and cobblestone existentialism in the cold without the pop warmth to shelter his shivering tone; both the story and the teller seem more suited to coffee house folk, but at around ten minutes, it feels too literary and elitist even for that crowd.

Destroyer’s Rubies shine brightest somewhere between Bejar’s cryptic literary extremism and the Pornographers’ sticky pop sweetness. The barroom piano twinkle of “Your Blood” plays to ghost town revelers tapping their feet in the sawdust to the shaking tambourine, and the chorus of “Painter in Your Pocket” throws a little 80s radio bait on the verses’ folky hooks. A Rhodes piano paints dreamy, psychedelic day-glo over Beach Boys harmonies on “Watercolours into the Ocean,” and Neil Young’s raucous punk spirit dances through the aisles of “3000 Flowers” while a Crazy Horse cowgirl rises from the sand on “Sick Priest Learns to Last Forever.”

Bejar’s poetry and sense of lyrical melody rarely go hand in hand on this record, but perhaps his lyrics are just too much for his voice to handle: his words paint crisp photographs even when the scenes seem surreal, but Destroyer’s best melodies come in las and ba-das. The voice is unique, but it’s just not strong enough to carry both the sense and the sound at once. With a few more catchy choruses, the tunes themselves could carry the lighter meaning between Bejar’s heavy, metaphorical verses, but as it stands Destroyer’s Rubies too often settles for one or the other.

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