• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

May 01, 2025 By Shaun Soman Web Exclusive

Throughout the music video for “Dan’s Boogie,” the title track off Destroyer’s 14th studio album, frontman Dan Bejar appears via autographed, traveling headshot. Between stops, Bejar’s portrait returns to a nondescript flea market, as if seeking its place. At times, it awkwardly mingles with collectible Barbie dolls; at others, it more predictably rests with vinyl records and band posters. Director Colette Arrand believes headshots say “almost nothing about their subjects,” and this one, too, speaks little. What it does say, though, is resolute: Dan’s Boogie is vintage, signature Destroyer.

Don’t believe me, just ask Bejar, who calls the album “the most Destroyer-y record” yet. Career-spanning motifs reverberate across its nine tracks, but Dan’s Boogie plays less like a rehash of previous Destroyer efforts and more like an(other) essential reimagining of their catalog. Indeed, the album synthesizes the band’s “classic” works and their experiments with various styles between 2017’s ken and 2022’s LABYRINTHITIS to astonishing effect. You’ve never heard these songs before, but—if you’re a longtime fan—you have known, and lived with, and loved parts of them many times over…You’re still not ready.

Opener “The Same Thing as Nothing at All” capsizes within seconds, plunging listeners into a deep-sea oddity replete with pianos evoking submarine sonar. Later, guitar licks seemingly plucked from 2001’s Streethawk: A Seduction crest over waves of strings and horns. The experience is dazing, almost spiritual. Follow-up “Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World” finds a jarring, distorted guitar and Bejar, improvising lyrics for the first time, declaring “a new phase.” The track is one of Destroyer’s all-time best, even as the mix buries a warbling, twinkling synth that needs just a bit more room to frolic. Elsewhere, standout track “Bologna” finds Bejar and Simone Schmidt (Fiver) crooning over Balearic noir while the sprawling “Cataract Time” feels teleported from 2011’s Kaputt, due in part to an appearance from saxophonist and former collaborator Joseph Shabason.
Checking in at just under 37 minutes, Dan’s Boogie is Destroyer’s shortest album since 1996’s We’ll Build Them a Golden Bridge. While 15 more minutes would delight, the runtime feels purposeful. Like its photographic counterpart, the message to new listeners and fans alike seems clear: “Here’s Destroyer, distilled—an entryway, and a classic.” (www.destroyer.bandcamp.com)

Author rating: 9/10