Jim Newell

maesaslaw:

jimnewell:

Top Ten Destroyer Albums:

1) Streethawk: A Seduction (2001)

Okay, yes.

2t) Thief (2000)

2t) City of Daughters (1998)

I’m glad I’m not alone in loving these, and I would agree that they belong together on this list because in a lot of ways I think they are the same record. I would probably move them down a notch.

4) This Night (2002)

Not #1, but definitely in the top 5 and let’s just say #3, because I am a girl. If I ever destroy my life in the course of an hour it will be to this record.

5) Kaputt (2011)

LOOK IT’S REALLY COMPLICATED OKAY I DON’T EVEN WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT BUT I LOVE THIS ONE LESS AND IT KILLS ME WHY CAN’T I LOVE IT WHY WHY WHY

6) Collection of Dan Bejar’s 10-12 best songs for the New Pornographers (2000-)

What? Can you do this? Can you do this and not put Bay of Pigs on the list? I would take this out and replace it with Bay of Pigs.

7) Rubies (2006)

I also like this record a lot (see below). This is harder than I thought. I give up now.

8) Your Blues (2004)

9) We’ll Build Them a Golden Bridge (1996)

10) Trouble in Dreams (2008)

What? Stop making fun! Just be happy I went with this instead of the Top 50 Destroyer Songs.

For some reason this has already taken me three cigarettes and I am now profoundly distressed. Here is the most personal thing I have ever posted on the Internet: 

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I only go on the tumblrs once a year or so so I hope this is proper reblogging format, BUT:

1) I am beyond happy to have found other Destroyer nerds to debate trivial differences of opinion with!

2) City of Daughters and Thief are the same record? This is a highly suspect assertion. The former is a bunch of short songs that blend together, like one long piece from a singer-songwriter; Thief is the first with a full band and is made of easily separable rock/pop songs with actual hooks! (Although Thief is the most focused album, message-wise, since it’s just him assaulting the music business on each song. Bejar himself has rejected this interpretation, but he lies, and anyway that’s what I hear when I listen, so.) Thief is much closer to Streethawk than anything else.

3) Kaputt is divisive! Much like Your Blues was, and on that one I’m on the more “meh” side.

4) Of course I can put “Collection of Dan Bejar’s 10-12 best songs for the New Pornographers” on this list. How else would I fill out the top ten? I’m not gonna throw a 2-song EP on there instead, when the good song from that EP already appears on another album. And Bejar’s songs for the NPs always kind of reside as his own, isolated work, albeit with a more saccharine touch. Also too, and also too, some of his best NP songs are rewrites of songs from his old Destroyer albums. I WANTED TO PUT THIS ON THERE, OKAY.

5) I would share my play counts but I got a new computer recently and the counts are gone, and they wouldn’t accurately reflect my favorite songs anyway. (My favorite song is the title track on “Thief” FWIW!)

I am exhausted.