On Your Blues, Dan Bejar, the crazily-talented Canadian singer-songwriter and sometime member of supergroup New Pornographers, returns to his earlier, multi-tracked, Paul McCartney-as-a-poststructuralist self. The result i... more »s lovely. This is pop music that revels in cagey wordplay and references to other songs and art in a manner that's almost completely unpretentious. It's postmodern and deliciously decadent, but more in an '80s way than a self-consciously Brechtian or Symbolist one. The best part is that Bejar puts so many hooks in each song, it's difficult to avoid bad puns involving bait and tackle shops. Songs such as "Don't Become the Thing You Hated" and "The Music Lovers" are MIDI folk-rock, the joyous soundtrack to cultural apocalypse. Fans of Serge Gainsbourg, Marc Bolan, Young Marble Giants, Style Council, Felt, Magnetic Fields, and the Aluminum Group, step right up! Your Blues is easily among the best pop albums of 2004. --Mike McGonigal« less
On Your Blues, Dan Bejar, the crazily-talented Canadian singer-songwriter and sometime member of supergroup New Pornographers, returns to his earlier, multi-tracked, Paul McCartney-as-a-poststructuralist self. The result is lovely. This is pop music that revels in cagey wordplay and references to other songs and art in a manner that's almost completely unpretentious. It's postmodern and deliciously decadent, but more in an '80s way than a self-consciously Brechtian or Symbolist one. The best part is that Bejar puts so many hooks in each song, it's difficult to avoid bad puns involving bait and tackle shops. Songs such as "Don't Become the Thing You Hated" and "The Music Lovers" are MIDI folk-rock, the joyous soundtrack to cultural apocalypse. Fans of Serge Gainsbourg, Marc Bolan, Young Marble Giants, Style Council, Felt, Magnetic Fields, and the Aluminum Group, step right up! Your Blues is easily among the best pop albums of 2004. --Mike McGonigal
CD Reviews
Jarring and Fantastic
J. T. Winsor | San Francisco, CA United States | 03/20/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"OK, I'm a superfan. That said, when I first heard songs on this album, I was disappointed, I was thinking this was going to be "This Night" part II, fantastic at points, but as a whole left wanting. After I finally got the entire album and gave it a few spins, I have to say that I was wrong with my initial judgment. This album is just too much to get in a single listen, in that way it is more like "Streethawk: A Seduction". I started out with a couple of songs that were accessible. "Its Gonna Take an Airplane", with a sing song melody, synth flute, and hushed vocals found it's way inside my head almost instantly. The song "Your Blues" contains a signature coda, with the repeated plea "Lord know's I've been trying" over a background of synth, muted Coronet, and delayed piano, again it's infectious. After I had tackled the accessible ones, other more obtuse songs started to rise up and force me to take notice. "Notorious Lightning" is a standout, posing scenes of young players and their frivolities, with the music building to an anthemic shout of "and someone has to fall, before someone goes free!", possibly freed from the bonds of their immaturity. In many ways it reminds me of Streethawk's absolutely brilliant "The Bad Arts", except Bejar now realizes there is no need for an actual explosion. The instrumentation of the album is limited to synths and a nylon stringed guitar, which at times give the album a feeling that it came from 1984 not 2004, "Certain Things You Ought to Know" could have replaced The Dream Academy's version of "Please Please Please" on the Ferris Bueller's soundtrack. Once again Bejar lyrically drops props to the giants upon whose shoulders he stands, in this one we get from my untrained ears... Fleetwood Mac, The Smiths, and possibly Elvis Presley by way of the Pet Shop Boys, and Willie Nelson."
New sounds, yet stamped all over with Bejar's mastery
G. Hwang | Houston, TX United States | 05/02/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Dan Bejar never ceases to [expletive] me. The man is mad, and I love it. He is to music what Charlie Kaufman is to film, yet I love his original stamps of work and find them oddly close to my heart. The lyrics bite you on the lips after enticing you to kiss them. Bejar's voice, clear as a one-sided mirror. Destroyer at its catchiest and most eccentric best, the album is refreshingly clean in sound, yet more romantic and hollow-haunting than "This Night" and "Streethawk: A Seduction."The more there's not to get, the more you're magnetically drawn into Bejar's black holes. Just let it flow or let it go. This music is like nothing else, beyond organic. Without being pretentious, Destroyer sends out signals, bleeps from aliens, that life out there is more nirvanic than what exists here.So far, I've only listened to it 3 times, but I love it. This one's a keeper."
The Masterpiece
Jennifer | USA | 03/10/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"....and the masterpiece of Destroyer arrives. This album puts the bits and pieces that were spit out in Streethawks and This Night and arranges them into the language of beauty. The music is more involved and more intense. For fans of the raw music consisting of only acoustic and the magical vocals of Bejar ....be prepared, you're in for a sick ride. This music is developed to the fullest to arrive at the brink of perfection. It's filled with beautiful melancholy as well the adventures your life has never felt before. This is a must have. Enjoy!"
More great stuff from Bejar
postalgbv | USA | 03/17/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Really good album. He incorporates orchestra synth sounds alot which makes this album very dynamic, so get out your nice headphones or play this sucker through your audio/home theater setup so you can hear it all. You won't hear any up-beat rocking stuff here, but this album certainly won't put you to sleep (like parts of "This Night" did for me, natch). If you're a Destroyer fan, you know that you never know what to expect...always a surprise, and this album is no different. **Warning to any New Pornographers fans....get this album if you want to hear something interesting/different/awesome, but don't get it if you want to hear songs like Bejar contributes to tNP. Same genius. Different direction."
You haven't heard this album? Your Blues!
Dede Lee | 02/28/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've become a huge Destroyer fan within the past 3 months. Bought Your Blues first and I put it in the stereo and thought nothing of it. I could'nt look past Bejars strange voice. Once 'Don't Become the Thing You Hated' came on I was hooked. Good message. Then onto 'Mad Foxes'. Whoa! His lyrics are genius, but I've come to realize most of them make absolutely no sense. Nice formula. Since I understand Destroyer a little more and I've heard much more, Dan Bejar has become one of my musical heroes. He's good with tNP as well. 'Ballad Of a Comeback Kid' gives me chills. His music in general gives good vibes to all who I've let listen. Your Blues is most definately one of a kind."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1