Destroyer's Rubies is the latest album to receive the "best new music" blessing from the brutal minds at Pitchfork Media. This album carefully channels equal parts Velvet Underground and The Shins while avoiding the prissiness associated with "indie rock." Despite a delicate temperament, Destroyer includes enough gritty guitar and drum action to garner a true "indie rock" tag.
The record starts off with a title track of nearly ten minutes that wanders around between lighter indie fare and scorching, anthemic teen-rock. It then bounces back with the lighthearted, piano-driven "Your Blood" and the mature "European Oils" with its Flaming Lips-esque steel guitar. This third track is arguably the strongest on the album, with a beautifully round chorus of vocals and sweeping piano runs.
Keeping with the theme of a mature avant-indie band, Destroyer continues into "Painter In Your Pocket" and "Looter's Follies," the former a standard but well put-together acoustic track and the latter an altered time-signature masterpiece. Even without a unique sound, "Looters" is great because it is something familiar done very, very well.
The second half of Rubies begins with the muted but powerful "3,000 Flowers" and the slow burn of "A Dangerous Woman Up to a Point." In both, all of the instruments flow together, giving a full-bodied yet clear sound. The final three tracks share this similar style and highlight the more rock-based aspects of the band. The last song, "Priest Learns to Last Forever" combines the lost soul of Bob Dylan with the lighter, blues-ier elements of Led Zeppelin.
The album is cohesive but not clearly glued together, and never really defines a "Destroyer" sound. Some would see that as a lack of originality, others as a sign of versatility.
