Believers of the seasonal music philosophy listen up: Destroyer's latest effort, Trouble in Dreams, will be a great complement to the cool spring days ahead. This sleepy album personifies the slumbery softness of the season with its lithe instrumentation, ghostly vocals and references to the natural world.
Like a stinging rain on the face, Dan Bejar's words nip at the listener's ears. His moonstruck voice is the prominent feature on this sparse album, woozily drifting through the songs. In his eighth album with Destroyer, the part-time New Pornographer is not afraid to depart from the Pornographers' manic pop
stylings.
In like a lion and out like a lamb, this album starts out with a hint of excitement and ends without any.
The first two tracks Blue Flower / Blue Frame"" and ""Dark Leaves Form a Thread"" are like the first raindrops of a storm, relaxed and refreshing but still upbeat. ""Dark Leaves"" brings up the tempo a bit, adding a sprawling guitar part, some mild synth and heavier drums, allowing Bejar to add more drama to his vocals.
""The State"" is the most spirited song on the album, with a vibraphone and bursts of noise that make it a rambling toe-tapper. It is an armchair dance track that, unfortunately, gets a little too messy and out of control.
After the first three songs, the album fades into a soft drizzle. From the start of ""Foam Hands"" to the end of the album, there are only a few more lively moments, but the last segment of the album is a vast and poetic adventure. The relaxed and rambling ""Shooting Rockets"" ventures into the abyss for a whopping eight minutes with a steady droning noise over melodic guitar, giving a good background to Bejar's lyrics. The song begins as it ends, light and unnoticed, with echoes of surf-rock in the middle.
The album's intricate fluffiness could only work with a wispy voice like Bejar's. The dreamy tracks eventually lull the listener into a state of contentedness, provoking thoughts of driving through the rain. It is pleasant, but only in small doses, and eventually Trouble in Dreams begins to drone on like the first hazy days of spring.
The key to this album is putting everything in light portions. There are a few prog elements but nothing overdone. Bejar ventures into steel-guitar country sometimes but backs off before getting really twangy. Still, at times the album feels like one long song, dragging on a little too much. However, it is a worthy addition to this spring's repertoire, and any redundancy or messiness can be ignored if listeners limit themselves to playing the album on rainy days or quiet evenings. It may be upbeat at times, but don't get excited, Trouble in Dreams is sure to soothe.
