Destroyer: “Kaputt” (Kaputt, 2011)
I kinda wish I had a different favorite Destroyer song to write about here. But let’s face it, there’s a reason this is the most common favorite off Kaputt. It’s just so good. The video is like icing a cake that’s already been iced three times.
So I will talk about it, but as a mental exercise, I’m going to try to write the rest of this post without using the following words: 80s, soft, and smooth. This may not be possible. Bear with me.
Actually there is something I want to talk about in this song that I don’t know if I’ve seen mentioned anywhere, which is the guitar. There are two. One is embedded in the rhythm track, and it has a sort of reedy, chorused tone that harks back to a certain decade (and to my ears, to a certain album by a certain Mr. P. Gabriel—“That Voice” came up on the shuffle in the car today, so maybe that why he’s on my mind).
But the guitar I really want to address is the one that has a little bit of surfy reverb dripping off of it. It comes in out of nowhere after the first verse and kind of tears things open for a second, then goes back into whatever crevice it leapt out of and only comes back for two meek little smears of distortion late in the song.
This would be a great song without it, but with it, it’s a FREAKING GREAT SONG. Something about it—the way is sets off the, uh, what do I want to call this? Fluidity? Pillowy-ness?—completes the song in a way that few other things could.
Honestly, I never really liked Destroyer before I heard “Bay of Pigs” back in 2009, when it was put out as a teaser for Dan Bejar’s new direction. I think the moment where, however many minutes into this epic song, he declares, “Love is a political beast with jaws for a mouth,” was the turning point for me. It was so ridiculous but so well-executed that I had to cave in to it. Plus, it reminded me a little of Legendary Pink Dots.
