The Destroyer Kaputt Review

I was first introduced to the band Destroyer in my workplace, when a coworker of mine was playing the album Destroyer’s Rubies. I was quite impressed by the impressive guitar work and the gentle singing.

When I asked my coworker who the band was, he said it was Destroyer and I couldn’t believe that such a name would be applied to a band that sounds like they do in the following video.

Destroyer’s new album, Kaputt, is coming out tomorrow and I had the opportunity to hear a review copy courtesy of a friend of mine. I wasn’t sure what the new album would be like as every album seems distinct from one another. I was pleased as punch from the beginning and was intrigued by the sounds of synthesizers heard all throughout and saxophone lines that just really make the whole album much better for me.

Here’s one of my favorite songs from the album, with the same name as the album itself — Kaputt.

I can’t say that I ever understand Destroyer’s lyrics — like the following lyric from Kaputt:

Wasting your days
chasing some girls alright
chasing cocaine
through the backrooms of the world all night

I wonder if some of the lyrics are all together serious and how many of them are just there to sound nonsensical and amusing in our ears as we listen to the exceptional music being played behind it.

Other exceptional tracks from the album are “Blue Eyes,” “Poor in Love,” and the very well played “Song for America” — they all make for a well-rounded album. “Song for America” has a steady beat and guitar licks and saxophone lines that sound like they come straight out of a seventies adult contemporary film.

I must finally comment on the last track of the album, “Bay of Pigs,” which was originally released as an EP in 2009. The song is over ten minutes long and it is a beautiful lush landscape of a melody, with sparse lyrics that are backed by a bit of a disco beat to it. Quite appropriate that with lyrics like these —

All lit up and sick of fighting
beneath the diseased lighting of the discotheque at night.
It don’t mean a thing. It never means a thing.
It don’t mean a thing. It never means a thing.
It’s got that swing.

Right now Kaputt is available for purchase directly from Merge (with free shipping on both the CD and LP) and it comes with a one inch button. I opted for the vinyl version just to hear that sweet vinyl sound.