Destroyer Album Review: Dan's Boogie
(Merge)
BY KEITH MILLER
Dan Bejar, lead singer and songwriter of Destroyer, is always winking at his audience. Sometimes, though, he’s not just winking at them: He’s strapping his listener in a wingback chair, pouring them a glass of brandy, bringing it up to their lip for a small sip, placing it down on a mahogany desk, and looking at them dead on as he begins to wink. Yet, right before his one eye closes, an idea creeps into his head, and he blinks with both of his eyes in complete sincerity. Destroyer’s latest album, Dan’s Boogie, has been blinking at me these past few weeks. Bejar’s music is in on a joke that doesn’t make me laugh so much as it makes me think, “Oh, I get it!” and then later on the drive home, realize, “I don’t actually get it, but I really like it.”
Bejar has steadily toured for three years since the release of his 2022 record LABRYNTHITIS, during which he didn’t focus on songwriting. Instead, he allowed his creative impulses to grow without the pressure of producing new music. What started as a brief break after finishing LABRYNTHITIS turned into nearly two years of refraining from writing at all. The result? Dan’s Boogie—and it boogies. “Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World” was written to mimic a pop artist’s song of the summer that's played by every teeny bopper for months out of the year prior to being cast off and forgotten when the next hit comes. Appropriately, the second half of the song is improvised spoken word, another wink.
Best, groove bursts at the seams of Dan’s Boogie. The title track is a powerful song that encourages you to bop along and boogie with Bejar, even if he boogies a little differently than you do, something you might not see in his performance on stage. Each track showcases instrumentation and variety that hasn’t been as present on Destroyer’s more subtle recent releases. 2020’s Have We Met was slow and contemplative. LABRYNTHITIS jumped from topic to topic and refused to stick to one thorough sound. Dan’s Boogie, among its numerous styles, commits itself to its name.
