Recorded with the production duo
JC/DC
(aka
David Carswell
and
John Collins
) -- who aided in the creation of
Destroyer
's first three discs --
Dan Bejar
ditches the band format he used for 2002's
This Night
with tremendous results. Fusing a dramatic vocal style akin to that of
David Bowie
in the 1970s with 1980s studio achievers like
Microdisney
Prefab Sprout
,
Your Blues
is regularly breathtaking. Launched with the strummed guitar of
"Notorious Lightning,"
Behar
soon expands on his vision with the bright, synth-conceived orchestration of
"An Actor's Revenge"
and the fabulous, adventurous
pop
of
"The Music Lovers."
Sure, the long
a cappella
intro on the title cut is hard to take, but
's records are never without a challenge or two. Still,
quickly redeems himself with the tongue-in-cheek
"New Ways of Living,"
which pokes fun at mid-'80s
drama queens with lyrical and musical finesse. The flute-laced
"It's Gonna Take an Airplane"
is the high point here, with lyrics like "Baby, you were born to be seen/And art's just the start," but late-model standouts like the
Hunky Dory
-inspired
"What Road"
and the haunting closer,
"Certain Things You Ought to Know,"
all help make
2004's early front-runner for
art rock
album of the year. ~ John D. Luerssen