Archive for September, 2010

of Montreal featuring Solange “Sex Karma”

Kevin Barnes is typically bipolar on his albums, shifting back and forth between declarations of love and lust and bitter, cruel condemnations. He’s very good at expressing both extremes, but on the whole, I prefer the songs that convey genuine sweetness and desire if just because those are more scarce in modern pop. “Sex Karma” is very much one of those. It’s flirty and light, a head rush of infatuation and fascination that feels almost as good as the real thing. It’s not overly serious either. It’s playful and goofy, the lyrics put it in the terms of child-like wonder, enthusiasm, and exploration. I love that Barnes has Solange sing “you are my only luxury item, if anyone tries to steal you, I’ll fight ’em.” For one thing, it just comes out sounding adorable, but in terms of pop music subtext, it’s a total flip on the usual dynamics of the lyrics in her famous sister’s hit singles. Instead of putting attraction and relationships in terms of accruing power and riches, this is simple and not at all crass: You’re what matters to me, everything else is just stuff.

Buy it from Polyvinyl. It will ship now, ahead of the release date.

Destroyer “Sick Priest Learns To Last Forever”

Here’s a fun thing to think about: Imagine that Dan Bejar has been commissioned to record a cover version of John Williams’ score for the Star Wars movies in the style of Destroyer. Not instrumental, by the way — he is expected to sing the entire thing, and reinterpret the films’ story in his lyrics. I can conjure this music in my mind, but only up to a point. I can get the sound of it, but I’m not nearly clever enough to translate Star Wars into Bejar-ese, though I can definitely get a sense of where he’d go with it, especially in terms of Princess Leia’s sexuality and royal privilege. Daughter of the evil king! Romantically pursued by her brother and a scoundrel! That sounds like the makings of a Destroyer song to me.

There is something in Dan Bejar’s voice that makes it impossible to tell the difference between artsy seriousness and intellectual campiness. It’s all a blur, intentions are always tangled, and mixed up in base urges. Through Bejar, all of life is droll comedy, and all of civilization is just endless posturing and pageantry. “Sick Priest Learns To Last Forever” may be my favorite Destroyer song, and I think it captures the essence of the band, or at least what is most appealing to me. All of Destroyer’s Rubies sounds like it is set deeper and deeper into the night, but “Sick Priest” sounds as far into the night as you can go before tripping into the dawn. It sounds like the part of night that most feels like a secret, the bit most everyone sleeps through, but there you are stumbling through it, and somehow reaching an understanding that you’ll just forget by the time you finally pass out. Bejar is typically obscure on the verses, but as he leans into the refrain, he’s reassuring: “That’s okay, yes, it’s fine…” You just take his word for it.

Buy it from Amazon.