Destroyer

For decades, critics have been leveling such denunciations as arch, portentous, heavy–handed, and precious at rock music. Destroyer’s Dan Bejar has managed to turn those denunciations into attributes. His vocals feature mannerisms that we’d usually find annoying in our U.K. cousins: feyness, enthusiastic offhandedness, melodramatics, self-importance, and smugness. (Think: Bowie, Suede, and Robyn Hitchcock at their archest.) Then why is Trouble in Dreams so darn appealing in a “guilty pleasure” manner? Perhaps it’s because Bejar realizes and delights in his righteous anger (“I’ve been living in America in churches of greed/It’s sick!” he sings in “Dark Leaves Form a Thread”) and over-the-top whimsy (“I gave you a flower because foxes travel light and a penny for your thoughts was never enough,” he proclaims in “Blue Flower/Blue Flame”). Bejar’s beguiling, bittersweet melodies are rich with a comforting, melancholic feeling, featuring sighing, crystalline guitars, elegantly billowing synthesizers, and loping, world-weary tempos, while his warble has just a touch of theatrical self-awareness.