1996–2001
We'll Build Them a Golden Bridge, Destroyer's 1996 debut, is made up of sixteen lo-fi home-recordings. One reviewer suggested that the album combines Bejar's "gift for melodies" with “a concerted effort to make the recording downright inconsumable; the guitars are always out of tune, and the vocals of Fisher-Price quality. 'Static means punk / tuning is junk,' Bejar moans on one track.” [5] (Ideas for Songs, released on cassette in 1997, features songs akin to those on his first album. The cassette stemmed from a request to contribute songs for a compilation album.[6])
As Bejar gained popularity in Vancouver's music scene, he was joined by producer John Collins for 1998's City of Daughters, which was recorded at a proper studio. Pitchfork noted that the songs still sounded "homespun," also noting "[t]he wordiness that would become something of a trademark is in full effect," but that "unlike much of what came later, not every line is worthy of examination."[7]
Thief (2000) embodied "Bejar's first stab at matching his grandiose, idiosyncratic vision to a showier sound;" it was the first to feature a backing band on every track.[8] The record's "anthemic yet understated"[9] piano-driven ballads have characteristically enigmatic lyrics, though some reviewers interpreted them as critiques of the music industry.[10][11]
Streethawk: A Seduction (2001) realized the sonic refinement started with City of Daughters. Bejar put it this way: "I don't think it gives credence to any kind of conceptualization of the records, but I hope that City of Daughters, Thief, and Streethawk will pop into some kind of a progression that ends with Streethawk.“ [12] A critical success, the album (retrospectively) received a rating of 9.1/10 from Pitchfork.[7]
2002–2007
The 2002 rock album This Night was a dramatic change in style. The looser, less rehearsed style was criticized as "messy [and] haphazard without purpose,"[13] though other critics praised the "beautiful mess of sounds" as "challenging... [and] a powerful, cohesive whole."[11] In a 2006 interview (after the release of Your Blues and Destroyer's Rubies), Bejar said the album "came together pretty quickly - we probably could have used more than four or five days to mix the whole thing, but that's all hindsight. It's still my favorite Destroyer record."[12]
Your Blues (2004) saw Destroyer take another unexpected turn, using MIDI instrumentation for almost all the backing music. Bejar coined the term "European blues" to describe its unique, theatrical sound.[14] One reviewer pointed out that "Bejar’s unusual voice sounds more confident, and higher up" in the synth-rich arrangements.[15] In yet another twist, the EP Notorious Lightning & Other Works reworked six tracks from the record with a live band, the very thing the LP had forsaken (the band was Frog Eyes, who toured with Destroyer in support of Your Blues).
Bejar returned with a live band for 2006's Destroyer's Rubies, delivering arguably his most confident record up to that point. The backing band took new-found prominence and, according to Bejar, "[t]he production seems... warm and lush and pretty focused on just making the band sound good and having everything sit well together."[12] NOW Magazine observed, "[w]hile the sheer density of Bejar’s writing can be overwhelming, Destroyer’s Rubies is, on a musical level, the most ’accessible’ disc he’s released."[16]
2008–2013
For Trouble in Dreams (2008), "there was a scary lack of ideas coming into the record," Bejar admitted.[17] Destroyer's piano player Ted Bois took it upon himself, as an alternative to keyboard and piano accompaniment, to create all string and synth arrangements for the songs.[17] At the time, Bejar said it was the "hardest record" to make.[17]
After the 2009 EP Bay of Pigs came 2011's full-length album, Kaputt (featuring a slightly modified "Bay of Pigs" track). Bejar cited influences such as Miles Davis and Roxy Music for his new jazz-infused, lounge music-inspired, sophisti-pop direction. In multiple interviews, Bejar variously stressed that he "sang in a completely different manner, almost unconscious of even singing, more like speaking into a vacuum, and was really happy with the results."[18][19] The record entailed a number of firsts for Destroyer: first national television performance (on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon); first official music video; first female backing vocals; and the first time Bejar performed without an instrument on tour - his concentration placed solely on his singing. Kaputt was short listed for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize [20] and was Pitchfork's second best album of 2011.[21]
Although smaller in scale, Destroyer's fourth EP "Five Spanish Songs" continued to surprise listeners. Sung entirely in Spanish, Bejar covered songs by Sr. Chinarro (es). Bejar's own tongue-in-cheek press release announcing the new songs began: "It was 2013. The English language seemed spent, despicable, not easily singable."[22]
2014–present
Bejar released Poison Season on August 28, 2015. Bejar notes that the album's sound grew from "just really getting into what we were sounding like playing live [following Kaputt]."[4] Bejar added that he would not have been able to make such an ambitious album if Kaputt had not been successful.[23] Recorded with a live band and a pronounced string section, the album's "grand cinematic set of songs"[23] feature Bejar singing with a broader range than before: "This is the first record that I've ever done that comes close to my idea of myself as a singer," Bejar said.[24]
In 2017, Bejar released ken.
Bay of Pigs
Destroyer Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Soon
Listen, I've been drinking
As our house lies in ruin
I don't know what I'm doing
Alone in the dark
At the park or at the pier
The world's just bones
The world is black stones dressed up in the rain
With no place to go but home
Just like Nance
On a night like this, why, she's pro-stars, pro-sky
All lit up and sick of fighting
Beneath the diseased lighting of the discotheque at night
It don't mean a thing
It never means a thing
It don't mean a thing
It never means a thing
It's got that swing
I've seen it all
I've seen it all
Magnolia's a girl
Her heart's made of wood
As apocalypses go, that's pretty good
Sha-la-la, wouldn't you say?
Please remove your spurs
Come to think of it, remove your antlers
Haven't seen you for ages
I still fly into rages at the mention of your name
Christine White
I think about you often, off in the desert
Laughing your head off in the forest of the night
Say a prayer for the light
So now I live well, I live in the mine
I'm still slinging mud at the towers all the time
I took a walk
And threw up in an English garden
Ah, da, da, ah, da, da
Ah, da, ah, da, da, da
Ah, da, ah, da, da, da
Ah, da, da, da, da, da
Ah, da, da, da, da, da
Da, da, ah, da, da, da
Da, da, ah, da, da, da
Ah, da, da, da, da, da
I was born in the North, but my father's from the South
Love is a political beast with jaws for a mouth, I don't care
You're upset and have every right to be
Regretfully, you decline
Every night was a waste of time
Every night, every night, every night
You were on the side of good
I was inside of the sea's guts
A crumbling beauty trapped in a river of ice
A crumbling beauty trapped in Paradise
Oh yes, it was Paradise
The tide comes in and the tide goes out again
I suppose this is the kind of thing we see every day
The tide comes in, the tide goes away
Oh, the tide comes in, yeah, the tide, yes, the tide
A ransom note written on the night sky above
Reminds me what in particular about this wine I love
Like a punctured beast, better off dead
Compliments going to my head
La, da, da, la, da, da
And speaking of my mind, the sunflower
And speaking of a world turning sour on you
I was twenty years old in 1992
I was bathed in golden sunlight, alright
I was ripped on dope, you were a ray of sunshine
I was a hopeless romantic, you were swine
You've got to spend money to make money
You've got to stop calling me "honey"
Oh world, you fucking explosion that turns us around
The searchlight slumps over, so sick of the night
And the kids on the boats, busted in the shipyard
Going down, down, down, down, down, down, down
You traveled light, all night, every night
To arrive at the conclusion
Of the world's inutterable secret
And you shut your mouth
I've seen it all
I've seen it all
I've seen it all
Free and easy, gentle, gentle
The wind through the trees makes you mental for me
Nancy, in a state of crisis, on a cloud
Free and easy, gentle, gentle
The wind through the trees makes you mental for me
Nancy, in a state of crisis, on a cloud
Free and easy, gentle, gentle
The wind through the trees makes you mental for me
Nancy, in a state of crisis, on a cloud
Free and easy, gentle, gentle
The wind through the trees makes you mental for me
Nancy, in a state of crisis, on a cloud
The lyrics of Destroyer's song "Bay Of Pigs" are mysterious and difficult to interpret, but they may be understood as voicing the disillusionment of someone who feels lost and alone in a dark and hostile world. The song opens with the repetition of the word "soon" and the confession that the singer has been drinking, setting a foreboding tone. The lines "As our house lies in ruin / I don't know what I'm doing" suggest that the singer's personal life is in disarray, while the image of watching ships disappear in the rain conveys a sense of alienation and despair.
The second stanza continues this theme, with the singer stating that "The world's just bones / The world is black stones dressed up in the rain / With no place to go but home". Here, the "world" seems to represent life itself, which has been reduced to a barren, empty space. The reference to the singer Nance being "pro-stars, pro-sky / All lit up and sick of fighting" suggests that she, like the singer, is yearning for something beyond the mundane reality of everyday existence.
The final stanza brings the song full circle, as the singer reflects on his past and declares that "I've seen it all". The repetition of this line suggests a sense of weariness and resignation, as if the singer has come to the end of his journey and found nothing but emptiness. The image of the wind through the trees making Nancy "mental for me" is enigmatic, but may suggest that even in the face of despair there is still a glimmer of hope or desire.
Line by Line Meaning
Soon
The future is imminent and approaching quickly.
Soon
Time is running out and action needs to be taken.
Listen, I've been drinking
The singer is under the influence and not fully in control.
As our house lies in ruin
The home environment is a reflection of the artist's inner turmoil and chaos.
I don't know what I'm doing
The artist is lost and lacks direction.
Alone in the dark
The singer is isolated and feels disconnected from the world.
At the park or at the pier
The singer seeks solace in natural settings that are not tainted by human corruption.
Watching ships disappear in the rain
The artist is an observer of life's fleeting moments and how time fades everything away.
The world's just bones
The world is stripped of all superficiality and reduced to its bare essentials.
The world is black stones dressed up in the rain
The external appearance of the world is deceptive and disguises its true nature.
With no place to go but home
The singer acknowledges that the only place of comfort and safety is within themselves.
Just like Nance
The artist makes a reference to someone who shares their sense of loneliness and despair.
On a night like this, why, she's pro-stars, pro-sky
Nance, like the singer, finds solace in the vast expanse of the night sky and yearns to be free from earthly problems.
All lit up and sick of fighting
The singer is exhausted from the struggles of life and seeks a way to escape their problems.
Beneath the diseased lighting of the discotheque at night
The singer is in a place of decadence and moral decay that amplifies their already negative feelings.
It don't mean a thing
Nothing in life matters or has any significance.
It never means a thing
Life is devoid of meaning, and everything is transient and fleeting.
It's got that swing
Despite the emptiness of life, there is still something hypnotic and compelling about existence.
I've seen it all
The singer has witnessed the full range of human experience, from joy to anguish.
Magnolia's a girl
The artist is personifying something pure and beautiful as a woman.
Her heart's made of wood
The lovely outward appearance of the world can conceal something cold and unfeeling within.
As apocalypses go, that's pretty good
The artist is sarcastically suggesting that even the end of the world is not a big deal.
Sha-la-la, wouldn't you say?
The singer is inviting the listener to join in their ironic detachment and share in their disillusionment.
Please remove your spurs
The artist is asking the listener to relinquish the trappings of their current identity and be open to new perspectives.
Come to think of it, remove your antlers
The singer is using a metaphor to suggest that the listener should discard their defenses and be vulnerable.
Haven't seen you for ages
The singer is expressing a longing to connect with someone who has been absent from their life for some time.
I still fly into rages at the mention of your name
The singer is still emotionally invested in the relationship and has unresolved feelings of anger and pain.
Christine White
The artist is using a name from their past to evoke a sense of nostalgia and longing.
I think about you often, off in the desert
The artist is reminiscing about their past life experiences and how they shaped them into who they are today.
Laughing your head off in the forest of the night
The singer is imagining the person they miss being carefree and happy in a peaceful place under the stars.
Say a prayer for the light
The singer is asking for a moment of reflection and hope in a world that can be dark and chaotic.
So now I live well, I live in the mine
The artist has found a sense of purpose and fulfillment in something that others may see as dark or dangerous.
I'm still slinging mud at the towers all the time
The artist is still fighting against the powers that be and the systems they represent.
I took a walk
The artist is using a metaphor to describe a journey of self-discovery and contemplation.
And threw up in an English garden
The singer has been confronted with something unpleasant or challenging during their journey.
Oh world, you fucking explosion that turns us around
The artist is expressing frustration and anger at the world for its chaotic, unpredictable nature.
The searchlight slumps over, so sick of the night
The singer is using imagery to describe the feeling of hopelessness and despair that can sometimes accompany insomnia and anxiety.
And the kids on the boats, busted in the shipyard
The singer is referencing a specific type of hardship or struggle that exists in their community.
Going down, down, down, down, down, down, down
The singer is painting a picture of something that is spiraling out of control or headed towards disaster.
You traveled light, all night, every night
The artist is describing someone who is constantly moving and unable to settle down or find peace.
To arrive at the conclusion
The artist is indicating that there is a specific realization or insight that must be reached.
Of the world's inutterable secret
The singer is referring to something profound and mysterious about the nature of existence that cannot be put into words.
And you shut your mouth
The singer is suggesting that the realization they are referring to cannot be expressed verbally.
Free and easy, gentle, gentle
The artist is using positive language to describe a state of mind that is calm and serene.
The wind through the trees makes you mental for me
The artist is describing a moment of sensory pleasure that they associate with someone else.
Nancy, in a state of crisis, on a cloud
The artist is using a name to describe someone who is vulnerable and struggling, yet seemingly isolated and removed from the situation at hand.
Lyrics © SC PUBLISHING DBA SECRETLY CANADIAN PUB.
Written by: Daniel Bejar
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
CircleTriangles
Wait, let me clarify... these lines in particular:
"Love is a political beast with jaws for a mouth I don't care
You're upset - and have every right to be
Regretfully, you decline
Every night was a waste of time
You were on the side of good
I was inside of the sea's guts, "
Bing Bing
This isn't just a song, it's an experience. A lifetime captured in music. It's beautiful.
John Smith
I dont wanna be that guy but did you even read the description it explicitly says "this is a song"
Sentient Hotdog
@Ahmed Akbar No.
here comes the sun🌞
this song is magical, sublime, it takes me out of this earth, this plane of existence... and at the same time it grounds me with its breath-taking lyrics. the instrumental is set in another world, but the words come from a human heart.
I JUST REALLY LOVE THIS SONG.
Jeffrey Evans
I was just introduced to this amazing music by an amazing human she has opened my ears and mind to a completely new level thank you Melanie
Raver
The final chorus is probably one of the greatest choruses ever made.
Jordi Albamonte
No puedo parar de descubrir cosas en esta musica,,desde influencias infinitas hasta un momento insuperable del encuentro romantico entre dos replicantes perdidos entre su memoria ,si, en blade runner
Lycegenes
He probably's never gonna top this. One of my favourite songs in the world.
nevulise
Lasse Jürgensen Crud . No . Can’t say those things
Andrew Miller
Bay of Pigs: When an artist captures their stream of consciousness to absolute perfection.