It was worth it: ken is excellent, too, although in a different way. Whereas the Pornographers came at us in a joyful, dense, headlong rush, Bejar, who lives in Vancouver, stays "off in the corner doing poets’ work," as he sings in Tinseltown Swimming in Blood.
He’s thinking about the apocalyptic madness of late-capitalist culture, although the themes come through in glimpses and fragments.
"I can’t pay for this, all I’ve got is money/And money don’t make the world spin," Bejar sings in Sometimes in the World, a pulsing track that nods to the synth-rock hybrid perfected by New Order (they’re the patron saint of this album, as Avalon-era Roxy Music was for 2011’s Kaputt).
It’s another cranky, cryptic, astute Destroyer record.
• Destroyer. ken. Merge
• ★★★+ (out of five)
— Steve Klinge/TCA
