Dan Bejar follows up 2008’s uncharacteristically bland Trouble in Dreams with Kaputt, a great new Destroyer record that finds him in his elementwhich is to say, very much out of his element. Bejar is at his best when he’s covering new ground, diving head-first into unexplored and often improbable styles and aesthetics, and Kaputt is his most radical overhaul since 2003’s all-MIDI masterpiece Your Blues. Where he composed that record from some of the most fake, synthesized sounds possible, he builds Kaputt around some of the most dated, summoning the soothing keyboards, reverbed saxophones and lite-funk bass riffs of soft rock and smooth jazz. Bejar plays these sounds for shock but rarely for kitsch, and he continually finds clever and gorgeous new ways of arranging them (he makes particularly great use of Sibel Thrasher, a backup singer whose striking soprano recalls Emmylou Harris). Though his lyrics are typically sharp, Bejar tones down his sometimes overbearing persona considerably here, softening his sneer into a whisper and frequently stepping back to just let the music ride out in all its pleasantness.
Iron & Wine’s major-label debut Kiss Each Other Clean was produced by longtime collaborator Brian Deck, though listeners could be forgiving for assuming Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann had taken the helm, so closely does the album mirror the bombastic sugariness of the Lips’ best-known albums. Almost every track introduces a dubious new studio flourish. Piping flutes, electric pianos, choral accents and smooth saxophones too often push against Sam Beam’s songs instead of complementing them, but most inexcusable are the tracks that slather gaudy studio effects over Beam’s voice like bottled ranch dressing over a plate of fresh truffles. Here’s hoping Beam and company are a little more discriminating with their studio budget next time.
Power-pop songwriter Dylan Baldi’s self-titled album as Cloud Nothings isn’t a huge departure from last year’s early-material compilation Turning On. His songs are still so brisk and unadorned they could sometimes pass for Buzzcocks demos, though this time Baldi packs them even denser with melodies. Unlike retro pop-punk peers like Wavves’ Nathan Williams, Baldi doesn’t coast on attitude alone; there’s an understated sweetness to his songs that hints at the real person underneath all the surging hormones and conflicting feelings.
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Also out this week:
* The Get Up Kids’ synthesizer- and electronics-spiked There Are Rules, their first album since 2004.
* Rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson’s Jack White-assisted The Party Ain’t Over Yet
* Monotonix’s latest, Not Yet
* Gang of Four’s new Content
* Deerhoof’s Deerhoof vs. Evil
* Fujiya & Miyagi’s Ventriloquizzing
* Amos Lee’s Mission Bell
* And Nicole Atkins’ Mondo Amore.
