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Artist - Destroyer

Album - Destroyer's Rubies

Label - Merge

A member of Canadian super group the New Pornographers, Dan Bejar here turns in a somewhat different sound altogether, notching up the eccentricity to 10, and matching Ziggy-era Bowie with, well, just about everything from the Waterboys to Lou Reed via the Pet Shop Boys. If that sounds intriguing, it still fails to do the album justice. Literate, literary and dramatic, the music goes in all directions that the group setting doesn't allow there's no tight power pop on display. That it achieves its Supertramp, Blonde on Blonde mix so well is testament to the great writing at the core. And goodness, it is infectious. Like Ryan Adams moving well out to left-field, the hooks are there, the songs flow, the rhythms roll and punch, the instruments range from feedback-laden guitar to quiet piano, all overlaid with Bejar's deeply wizened quirky voice. An album to fall in love with in your own time.

Rating 8/10

12:54pm Wednesday 5th April 2006

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