#3 Album of 2006

Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
[Merge; released 2/21/06]

For most of the year, this album sat atop my list as my album of the year, and if it wasn’t for a certain Tuesday in October (hint hint) it would have been my #1 at year end. Destroyer’s Rubies is the 7th release from Dan Bejar as Destroyer and it is his best effort yet. Bejar, member of the all-star group, The New Pornographers, has created his most accessible album to date and toned down some of the weirdness. Bejar has that trademark indie voice that by no means can be considered pretty, but it would be a shame to get caught up in that because it is the perfect compliment to the brilliant swaggering tunes. With Rubies, Bejar has mastered making melodice pop songs (see “Painter in Your Pocket”), while not sacrificing the trademark structure and scope (see opening track “Rubies”) of past Destroyer albums. The album is full of ‘La da da das’ and ‘do do dos’ to add to all the great sing along moments to the disc. However, don’t even bother trying to interpret the lyrics. Destroyer’s Rubies still has completely abstract themes that only Bejar himself can know what the hell he is talking about. He doesn’t bother with explaining his references, but that is classic Bejar songwriting to go along with the new full band feel of the rest of the music. What Bejar has done here is created an easier listen and more catchy album than ever before in his catalog, but is still undoubtedly Destroyer. Rubies captures all the brilliance of Dan Bejar seen in past work but by toning down the weirdness, Destroyer has reached a peak.