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“New Ways of Living” – Destroyer
(Words/music: Dan Bejar, available on Your Blues, Merge Records 2004)

Calling Dan Bejar’s songs “strange” shortchanges both the man and his compositions.  Whether providing a handful of digressions from Carl Newman’s straight-forward power-pop with the New Pornographers or spinning densely melodic songs with Destroyer, Bejar challenges himself creatively with each new release. Still, “creative” might not be the first adjective one might think of when hearing “New Ways of Living” for the first time, as the rapid changes in tempo and Bejar’s exaggerated intonation make it sound like a bizarre piece of musical theatre.  This works for Bejar mainly because he’s too clever to fall in the trap of “musical theatre” meaning “be as literal as possible.”  The song has the same types of odd imagery, self-referential jokes, and wordplay that led fans to create a wiki resource devoted to Destroyer and Bejar’s songs.

However, “New Ways of Living” endears itself to me more for its musical quirks than its pseudo-Sondheim vocals.  The quick tempo changes at the beginning work well because the quick snare drum rolls drive from the gently strummed introduction into the piano vamp.  Bejar’s choice to use MIDI sequencing liberally across the Your Blues album gives this song a dream-like quality.  The synth-strings that come in sound slightly metallic yet not obscenely synthetic; instead, it makes the song sound slightly off-kilter and other-worldly.  Even the blatantly canned effects, such as the weird horn arpeggios right at the end of the track, somehow make sense – even if it sounds like iTunes telling me that my CD finished ripping, it somehow fits into Bejar’s arrangement. All of these musical factors – the shifts in tempo, the MIDI accompaniments, and the slightly over-the-top performance – make Bejar’s song unique and yes, strange as well.  Like all of his best songs, “New Ways of Living” sounds like pop from a parallel cartoon-like universe – one where pop songs bend and warp slightly, twisting into something entirely new by the time it’s done playing.

More on Destroyer: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm