Hip-D Top 20 of 2006 » #9 » Destroyer - "Rubies"
With his latest album, Destroyer's Rubies, Canada's most musically prolific Spanish expatriate delivered what very well may go down as his masterwork. Fortified by his uniquely identifiable lyrical architecture, which somehow manages to be simultaneously cryptic and accessible, Dan Bejar also delivers the musical wallop that was missing from his previous release as Destroyer, the jarringly synthetic Your Blues.
Equal parts literate and decadent, Rubies rides a maelstrom of piano and guitar across ten standout tracks, including the strongest trifecta of songs on a single album in recent memory: "Your Blood," with its jaunty singalong chorus; "European Oils," which also seemingly begs the listener to raise a stein and join the refrain; and "Painter in Your Pocket," which is propelled by some of the most hypnotically primal drumming since Van Halen's "Everybody Wants Some." This fantastic sonic journey continues all the way through the album closer, "Sick Priest Learns to Last Forever," which gives the listener an idea of what it might have sounded like if Bob Dylan joined The Rolling Stones back in the '70s before becoming "born again."
Miles better than anything he's previously done over a career already containing several noteworthy high points, Destroyer's Rubies truly is a treasure chest full of Dan Bejar's most valuable musical gems.
-- FT
FT's Favorite Track: "Sick Priest Learns to Last Forever"
This album appeared on the following staffers's lists:
- FT (#1)
- Patrick (#2)
by Bob Bland | 12/23/2006 07:19:00 AM
2 Comments:
As this is the favourite of Fractured Take, & second best of Patrick, I have to take a listen to this next time I'm in the record-store. I will almost assuredly enjoy it.
Why? Because of who likes it, & consequently, who doesn't. As it's not JAIL, it's listenable on an instrumental level, not just an attitude level. & as it's oblique but direct (to paraphrase the review) it should more than suffice on a conceptual level (not unlike several of the pieces by one whom I know to be one of FT's other pleasures, Pedro the Lion).
Good work, then, Femural Ache people. Good work.
I finally figured out whykiki is monty. It was driving me crazy not knowing who he/she was.
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