Beware the company you reside in

About halfway through "My Favorite Year," the gentle anthem at the emotional heart of Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Bejar's predictably strong ninth album as Destroyer, he abruptly shifts gears, briefly abandoning the song's gradual climb toward tremulous guitar-pedaled bliss for a moment of punk. "Beware the company you reside in," he barks eight times over a muffled yet discordant riff before the drums kick in and he steers back toward the stratosphere. In an interview given to New York Magazine, Bejar characterized this moment as "a pretty obvious part of the song to hate." It also happens to encapsulate all of the essential excellence of the Destroyer project, typifying Bejar's historical willingness to irritate or offend his audience to a productive end. In context, the gambit initially seems bratty and provocative, the lyric's obtuseness amplified by the abruptness of the shift as well by the fact that it's over so quickly. Repeat listens reveal that it's the cornerstone of the song—the complicating facet that makes something otherwise perfect into something unique.

Th rest of my review of Trouble in Dreams is over here.