1
“That’s life,” Dan Bejar sings in the first song
of the new Destroyer album. “It’s the same
thing as nothing at all.” Listening to
Bejar, I remember hearing Neil Young
sing for the first time, thinking at first he
was a woman, and then thinking that he
really wasn’t very good at singing,
until I began to love his songs because,
if the singing wasn’t good, the songs were
undeniably good. I got used to
the weirdness of his voice so much so that
it no longer seemed weird. Constantly surprised,
listening to Destroyer, will Bejar sing,
talk, or yelp? Will he claim “I remix horses”?
2
Yes, he will claim to remix horses.
If the music is polished, slick, almost
conventional, the lyrics never are,
and I know that so many of these lines
after repeated listenings will be
implanted in the memory banks for good:
“I’ll see you in Hell. I’ll see you around
sometime.” Well, Dan, which is it, and/or both?
Peaking out from time to time pure wisdom:
“Fools rush in but they’re the only ones with
guts.” So often I wished I was a bigger fool.
An aphoristic rock musician, a Dylan,
but my Dylan, Bejar, a better, bad,
good singer to see me through this current Hell.
michael jarmer 