Hey girl, come on and take a whirl, in my ma-chine!
So Destroyer is the only band to get two albums into "The Old 89ers Top 10 Favorite Albums of All Time". And it just so happens that two-thirds of the Old 89ers (the Old 59.3'ers, I guess) recently saw Destroyer (live! in concert!). Did Dan Bejar do some bribing? Did he, as we say, *affect* the outcome? I don't have a view about this - I'm just raising some interesting, compelling, and *important* questions. For your consideration.
I don't know which one of the other Old 89ers first made me listen to Destroyer, but I have a hunch it was one of you two mugs that heard them first. There's still a big part of me that hears Fargo when I hear Destroyer. Especially when I hear this album. It was burned into my soul while we kicked around the back alleys of eastern North Dakota, chasing silvery rabbits with our headphones on.
This album is one of those where I think I could sing along with the entire album, but I actually barely know any of the lyrics. When I look them up, I'm surprised at what he's saying. It barely looks familiar. But when the album is spinning, I kind of know them all and can sing along fairly well (and I do!). In that respect, it reminds me Sunny Day Real Estate's "Diary".
I like all of the Destroyer music that I've heard, but to be honest, most of it outside of "Streethawk" blends together for me. I generally don't know which songs are from which album, except for those from this one, which I think has a sort of mystical glue that sticks all the songs together in a lump. I love that about an album. It's kind of a concept album, but who knows what the concept is? I don't, and I don't really care.
Like all these albums we love and listen to forever, my favorite song changes from time to time. Lately, it's been "Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Sea of Tears)". It has some really classic Destroyer lyrics.. from the opening line, "It was back amongst the living.. your smile was giving.. me a thrill..", to the thickly intellectual middle lines:
It's true, I needed you more.. back when I was poor
the wealthy dowager (the patroness) -
she guessed it, and the answer wasn't yes, but..
her maxims were fine, the ethos that flew about her mind
like swallows in search
of a burned-down bell tower church!
I think that's exactly what it takes.
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