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Rating: Daniel Bejar, the author of all the tracks and the only unmovable member of the ensemble called Destroyer, is afflicted by a lucid madness, accompanied by a sort of aura that has always distinguished the "thoroughbreds"; I already noticed this while listening to his previously recommended work, "Your Blues", through which I, alas, discovered him belatedly.
The bearded "Destroyer" has been in the musical arena for at least a decade, leading that multicolored army from Canada that has taken on a "mission impossible": the triumph of quality pop, sometimes orchestral, rich with influences, especially European, particularly art-rock, with no concern for chart climbs. To this end, Bejar's contribution as an author and guitarist is fundamental both for the main project he participates in, The New Pornographers, a sort of Canadian indie-pop all-stars born towards the end of the past millennium, and as a reference point for the very lively scene moving between Vancouver and Toronto, with artists of the caliber of The Dears, Stars, Feist, Apostle of Hustle, just to name a few.
With his latest album "Rubies", he confirms, fortunately for those who love his odd and prosperous melodies, that he has not healed, quite the contrary. In some respects, the endeavor to which he has dedicated himself this time is even more complicated than the previous one. Indeed, more than with "Your Blues", the influences, the citations increase and the juxtaposition of musical elements from seemingly distant genres become more daring and surprising. With all this incandescent and heterogeneous material (the best pop of Albion descent, rock between Bowie and T. Rex, chamber music, American folk, blues) more than one would have burned or produced very unappetizing concoctions. Bejar and his group, however, manage to dominate it and produce songs that have a perverse charm, ending up attracting you like a magnet. Tracks that often exceed five minutes, with no rush to conclude, multicentric, sometimes lazily lingering on a guitar arpeggio or a refrain.
Already the first one, the title track of the album, would be a presentation of disarming naivety, almost self-destructive, for pop, nine and over minutes are more than ever an eternity today if there wasn't the suspicion that it was placed there precisely to immediately select those who can go beyond, the minority who share his same aesthetic ideals. The track seems to be written and sung in the first part by a Paddy McAloon dedicated to alcohol and with a more caustic sense of humor, then gradually losing the verve and electricity, becoming an acoustic and intimate ballad; let it be said plainly: others, with the insights and ideas present here alone, make half an album.
"European Oils" is the most catchy and sunny track, it will be difficult not to hum along on "yes" days, with a crescendo finale, now a sort of trademark, in which, besides the piano and the choirs, a well-crafted electric guitar solo also participates. Just as you will end up not being able to do without songs like "Painter in Your Pocket", with its percussive gait, Dan's guitar weaving lazy melodies and an engaging refrain that appears towards the end, leaving you no escape; or more intense tracks like "3000 Flowers", a respectful but not reverent homage to the Thin White Duke. The versatility and potential of our person even in more purely "rock" fields end up surprising you, especially in the track that closes the work, "Sick Priest Learns to Last Forever", an electric blues vaguely inspired by Hendrix.
An album, therefore, dense and light, carefree and melancholic at the same time, confirming Bejar's pure class and unbridled imagination, as a high-level songwriter. I really believe these "rubies" will proudly stand out in the personal diadem at the end of the year.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Rubies (09:25)
Dueling cyclones jackknife.
They got eyes for your wife and the blood that lives in her heart.
Cast myself towards infinity.
Trust me, I had my reasons.
Had a dress for every season, it was worth it.
Pulled into town relatively free of hassle.
Secured a room at the castle, it paid for itself.
Checked out my surroundings, headed down to Thornton Park.
Find your way.
Discover that things are dark.
Shadowy figures babbling on about typical rural shit.
I wave bye to them in a modern way and increase my stay at the
dock of the bay.
Quiet, Ruby, someone's coming.
Approach with stealth.
Oh, it's just your precious American Underground
and it is born of wealth.
With not a writer in the lot.
Sapphires vie for your attention
Cheap dancers, they mean well in their way.
But Priest says - Please, I can't stand my knees
And I can't bear her raven tresses caught up in a breeze like that!
Blessed doctor, do your worst.
Cut me open, remove this thirst.
Hidden, but near.
A series of visions, I won't repeat them here.
I won't repeat them here.
Typical me, typical me.
I gave my cargo to the sea.
I gave the water what it always wanted to be.
Look to the West!
Ah look it's no contest - Proud Mary said as she lit the fuse.
I wanted you, I wanted your blues
Your Blues.
All good things must come to an end.
The bad ones just go on forever
Isn't that what I just said?
It is Now and it is Never.
It is Now and it is Never.
It is Now and it is Never.
It is Now and it is Never.
Don't worry about her.
She's been known to appreciate the elegance of an empty room.
Look, I made you this broom.
A predicate warning to the sun -
This Night advances on...
The sketchy crowd shows me drawings, they're alright.
An alternately dim and frightful waste.
Now come on honey let's go outside.
You disrupt the world's disorder just by virtue of your grace, you know...
I didn't want to go, but leave I must...
As gratifying as this dust was.
Please don't wake me from this - my golden slumber -
I am proud to be a part of this number!
02 Your Blood (04:15)
I went for you in military times and, then, I waited well into the 2300s.
I made my way through the Union Street design kids.
They were alright.
They were on fire.
They harbored an elementary desire to do good works.
I bought 'em all, I bought 'em all!
I made donations to The Plague, and The Fall and The Old Grey Mare in her stall!
Endangered Ape, a couple years in Solitary never really hurt anyone.
Distinguished colleagues, dead music-writers' brides - I apologize.
They were alright.
They were on fire.
They harbored an elementary desire to do good works.
I bought 'em all, I bought 'em all!
I made donations to The Plague, and The Fall and The Old Grey Mare in her stall.
I don't know, I guess I'm doing alright.
Tabitha takes another stab at becoming light.
She never wants to go.
Always want to stay illuminated.
Ride towards the dawn, Quicksilver on the side of nothing.
Never had a chance.
Never had to choose Your Blood versus Your Blues.
03 European Oils (04:54)
I made a tomb for all the incompatible cells I could take and I brought bells to the wake. And you... you didn't mind shedding your beautiful European blood as I screamed: "death to the murderers we've loved all our lives!"
I was good with names, I had a way with faces and I was the dominant theme in a number of places. And you... you didn't mind mixing your beautiful European oils for a still life. Oh Candice, we should've run for our lives!
When I'm at war I insist on a slaughter and getting it on with the hangman's daughter. She needs release. She needs to feel at ease with her father, the fucking maniac.
I made a tomb for all the incompatible cells I could take and I brought bells to the wake. And you... you didn't mind shedding your beautiful European blood as I screamed: "death to the murderers we've loved all our lives!"
Desperate times call for desperate measures. I wanted you, I wanted these treasures, too.
05 Looters' Follies (07:26)
You can huff and you can puff but you'll never destroy that stuff.
Finally, I see why, I suppose...
Kid, you better change your feathers cause you'll never fly with those things...
In These Nights... The boys sing - "Hello, emptiness! I heard you're alright.
I heard you're alright.
I've heard of you..."
A body aching, fragile, and pale: dark valleys house its trail.
Why can't you see that a life in art and a life of mimicry -
it's the same thing!?!
The room was crowded, and though you couldn't care less about it,
That much was true.
That month - another version of this miniature Rome to set fire to.
Why did we stop fucking around?
Girls like gazelles graze.
Boys wearing bells blaze new trails in sound.
I looked up.
I looked around.
A famous Toronto painter shot me down.
"Oh, I've busted my ass on these streets too long," he said.
I set fire to the bed and tore his gown...
Felt some mercurial presence, hitherto unknown.
It was the sun. It was a stone falling through blank space.
It was that jewel-encrusted roan getting in my face.
Looked across the way to The Princess Rooms.
I saw brides and their grooms.
I heard the sound of bells ringing!
Cinders look back fondly upon a house on fire when across
an ocean we go.
We row and we row and we tire.
Now, step out of the darkness and into the light.
Yeah, it's common knowledge I've been doing alright.
No, I can't complain.
On the Eastside, midwives' lives go down the drain all cause our babies are dying...
I lifted the veil to see nature's trickery revealed as pure shit
from which nothing ever rose cause nothing ever could.
I swear somewhere the truth lies within this wood.
I swear, Looters' Follies has never sounded so good.
And, win or lose - what's the difference?...
06 3000 Flowers (03:46)
She was part of an inner circle.
Daughters of The Motherland.
Like a ship lit up at sea,
with scars where its talons used to be...
I was a slow learner, I moved in flourishes.
I was a late-bloomer, I moved in flourishes.
Last man on the scene...
Fresh face on a dying scene...
100th of a 'wet, black bough'...
I was Clytæmnestra on a good day, dispensing wisdom to
the uninitiated...
The initiates brought out in tumbrils shat out by the dawn...
Shat out by the dawn...
And, like a woman, I was kept as the wealthy
American Underground wept
at the sight of Rhode Island sinking into the sea.
And the sky still reigned supreme over the land as The Music Lovers
sat cross-legged in the sand and in Time and in Space, and (in other
words) in a band who, much like churchgoers, fuck themselves... up...
07 A Dangerous Woman Up to a Point (06:02)
A Dangerous Woman Up To A Point once said -
"As per your wishes, I left you for dead.
I left England to the English."
Is it always one thing or the other with you?
"Forgive them, my Lord, they know not what they do!"
"Hey, your friends are fucked, in so far, as your friends are an ancient
beast bronzed in tar!"
Have I told you lately that I love you?
Did I fail to mention there's a sword hanging above you?
"Those who love Zeppelin will soon betray Floyd."
I cast off these couplets in honor of the void.
I was here to stay.
I would weather the storm.
I pictured heaven on earth made of clay as your form dictated...
I went down to the garden with the noblest of intentions.
I felt the need to be brief.
I stuck a rose between my teeth and had a laugh.
The sun sets at the speed of light, so I thought I also might leave this
Port of Woe on tall ships made of snow invading the sun.
A Dangerous Woman Up To A Point once said -
"I've never read 'so-and-so, so why mention him here, in this square
where culprits axe me, my dear.
Tried to enjoy myself at the Society Ball, really I did.
Froze on Union Street, it was springtime, I was just a kid lost in a map
of the stars others called 'your eyes.'
It was a trap!
It was a good time!
It was hard to realize!...
I can't win.
I can't even walk.
Baby, you should talk.
Baby, you should hear what you're saying.
They said - "Don't look back!" but I looked back.
It was a bore.
It was a fucking horror.
It was - well, honey, you know quite well what you are...
A Dangerous Woman Up To A Point once said -
"People come, and people go, and people lie nameless in the snow..."
08 Priest's Knees (03:08)
and i was just another
west coast maximalist
exploring the blues
ignoring the news
from the front
where they're taking her
children away
taking them where they wanna go
tall ships made of snow
invading the sun
some people call me 'angel'
on their death bed in a dream
that's right
the Czar's father thought
things could've gone differently last night
but they didn't
and i couldn't bear
to follow you there
where trauma exists in the sky
20th century masters
welcome these disasters
and so do i. but no!
oh baby please don't go
up into it.
09 Watercolours Into the Ocean (04:46)
listening to strawberry wine
for the 131st time
it was 1987 and it was spring
it's 1987 all the time
now it's 1987 all the time
well we were there
too thin too fair
downing your third drink
standing at arm's length
in the square
just off
a mildly successful
killing rampage
where good writers go
to find one thing
and stick with it
oh life
is bigger
than a life on the run
from the united states
and her friends
on this night
made of jewels
it took three
carabinieri
to peel em off the streets of the town
she's named after
dragging the lagoon was a disaster
they found him alive and
relatively well
well some situations
seek redressing
some songs just
go testing, testing,
i took a picture
i was sick of motion
and wore her watercolours into the ocean
and wore her watercolours into the ocean
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