| Destroyer's Rubies | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 21, 2006 | |||
| Recorded | sporadically from May 20 to July 23, 2005 [1] | |||
| Studio | JC/DC Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 53:46 77:14(bonus track) | |||
| Label |
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| Producer |
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| Destroyer chronology | ||||
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Destroyer's Rubies is the seventh studio album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer, released on February 21, 2006 on Merge Records, Scratch Records, Acuarela Discos, Architecture, and Rough Trade Records. [3]
Dan Bejar has stated that Destroyer's Rubies was intended to sound "Like a band playing in a room." [4] He also called the album a "very natural record," noting that he embraced traditional songwriters such as Bob Dylan along with "image-heavy rants, but with a melodious, loping, folk-rock background." [5] Lyrically, Bejar stated that the rest of the band is "coughing up so much melody" that he could do whatever he wanted with the words; the album was the "apex of [the lyrics] dueling with the music." [6] [7] Pitchfork noted the use of stark acoustic guitar, and The New York Times described the album and as "elegant, shaggy version of classic rock," emphasizing the use of baritone saxophone, a tambourine, and Bejar's "weird, yelpy voice." [8] [9]
The album peaked at #24 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers music chart, and made it to #30 on the magazine's Top Independent Albums chart. [10]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 88/100 [11] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [12] |
| Alternative Press | 4/5 [13] |
| The A.V. Club | A [14] |
| Blender | [15] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ [16] |
| Pitchfork | 8.5/10 [8] |
| PopMatters | 8/10 [17] |
| Spin | A− [18] |
| Uncut | [19] |
| URB | [20] |
Destroyer's Rubies received widespread acclaim from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 88, based on 30 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". [11] Matt LeMay of Pitchfork gave the album a very favorable review, stating: "The album is structurally complex, thematically dense, and labyrinthine in its self-referentiality. Dan Bejar's vocals are, like many of his indie contemporaries, yelpy and dramatic, and many of his lyrics seem preordained to serve as mp3 blog headers. In other words, the qualities that once made Destroyer albums so 'difficult' make Destroyer's Rubies a perfect record for this critical moment." [8]
Pitchfork placed Destroyer's Rubies at number 158 on their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s. [21]
All tracks are written by Dan Bejar.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Rubies" | 9:25 |
| 2. | "Your Blood" | 4:14 |
| 3. | "European Oils" | 4:52 |
| 4. | "Painter in Your Pocket" | 4:09 |
| 5. | "Looters' Follies" | 7:25 |
| 6. | "3000 Flowers" | 3:46 |
| 7. | "A Dangerous Woman Up to a Point" | 6:01 |
| 8. | "Priest's Knees" | 3:06 |
| 9. | "Watercolours into the Ocean" | 4:43 |
| 10. | "Sick Priest Learns to Last Forever" | 5:53 |
| Total length: | 53:46 | |
...and Destroyer's Rubies is his best-yet work under the moniker. The tics and themes that make his music so undeniably his are all here, as is the shaggy jazz and folk-rock...
The New Pornographers are a Canadian indie rock band, formed in 1997 in Vancouver. Presented as a musical collective and supergroup of singer-songwriters and musicians from multiple projects, the band has released nine studio albums to date. The band have received critical acclaim for their use of multiple vocalists and songwriters, as well as for the elements of power pop incorporated into their music. Pitchfork has described the band's sound as "peppy, gleeful, headstrong guitar pop", while Stereogum has retrospectively praised the band's debut album Mass Romantic as "one of the greatest and most immediate power pop albums ever rendered".
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