Destroyer – Kaputt (2011) [Merge] // Grade: A

Each new release from Destroyer brings a shift in style—and there are a lot of them, Dan Bejar has been dabbling under the Destroyer name since 1995. Bejar  makes the complicated seem effortless, meshing disparate styles, and embracing difficult structures with warmth. Bejar’s lyricism eschews hooks for poetry, his distinctive sing-talk style as freeform as his instrumentation. Hushed anticipation gives way to awe with Kaputt, the newest addition to the Destroyer catalog. This is the album where Dan Bejar’s trail of magic finally comes together, fully realized in a state of silky smooth dreaming.

“Chinatown” opens, its first guitar notes backed by the ripple of synthesizer and horns. When Bejar’s voice joins in a few bars later, the combination is a gleaming affair of lounge poetry set to elevator jazz. “You can’t walk away / I can’t walk away” repeats over building instrumental improvisation, a call to stay juxtaposed with a feeling of being already gone. The nine tracks listen like a continuous line drawing experiment, Bejar’s words tumbling quickly then pausing for the instrumentation to continue the flow. “Suicide Demo for Kara Walker” clocks in at over 8 minutes, Bejar crouched over piano, a spotlight illuminating his seated form, band in one corner of the parquet dancefloor as couples slow dance under smoky air in the other.

Kaputt is to Destroyer what Before Today was to Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti; years of tinkering culminate in an album that uses mood to unite experimentation. The waiting genius presents himself as palatable to the larger public.

- Scrooge McFuck