Word: bejar
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...before “Beast Moans” dropped, it really didn’t seem necessary. More resumé-padding from the over-recorded Dan Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers) and the stretched-too-thin Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, a dozen other bands). Plus Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes, who may or may not be crazy. On paper, Swan Lake shouldn’t work that well...
...monster’s brains are Bejar. Leaving listeners with headscratchers like “The freedom/to be alone with the freedom,” he builds on the dense mythos he’s created on Destroyer records. But somehow he makes abstraction and mystification attractive. Any song named “A Venue Called Rubella” shouldn’t be fun, but the out-of-tune saloon piano makes the ditty a rollicking, midtempo good time and the eponymous refrain catchy...
...Beast Moans” forward. “The Partisan But He’s Got to Know,” a Mercer feature, lurches forward like some baroque, “Swordfishtrombones”-vintage Tom Waits tune, almost spiraling out of control until Krug and Bejar enter to tame the melody...
...musicians’ other groups, and there’s a fair bit of self-referentiality. “All Fires” reuses a line Krug already sang on a Sunset Rubdown album released earlier this year and on “The Freedom” Bejar references the “city of daughters,” the name of an early Destroyer release. But, this being a group of Canadians, there’s relatively little ego; despite their varying levels of fame, everyone gets roughly equal time at the helm...
...that the Dylan comparisons matter much anyhow: if Bejar keeps producing albums as good as this one, he will become a benchmark of excellence in his own right...