So, Streethawk, holy shit.
I've now heard three albums, totalling 33 songs, by this band, and I am yet to hear anything that has even come close to being a bad song. I'm being serious too.
I can't remember if I've ever had a run like that with a band before.
Streethawk recalls late 60s/early 70s David Bowie so it's no surprise I'm all over it. It's there in the ramshackle piano, the interesting takes on lyrics in the vocal delivery, the at-times indecipherable-yet-brilliant lyrics. The quotation marks in the printed lyrics. (Seriously, it's like he's modelled himself on Cygnet Committee.) The guitar breaks. The way he ends the songs.
Of those 33 Destroyer songs I've heard, I'm yet to figure out what any of them are about ("a girl" is pretty much the only thing I can come up with) and that doesn't bother me in the slightest. The non-sequiturs, lines going on for seconds longer than they should, the intertextuality, the blatant references to other bands' music. I love how he wears his influences on his sleeve (the most common complaint I've seen of Kaputt).
I need more time with the album before I can talk about the songs but my only complaint was that there was no guitar break after "bloodlet yourself, street style!!" in The Bad Arts, though the "you got the spirit / don't lose the feeling" refrain made up for it.
Breaks my heart Destroyer aren't more popular. But maybe that's Dan's prerogative? Fair to say I'll be getting more albums before the year is out.
Anyway time for me to go to bed... but not before I say that there isn't anywhere enough discussion around here sometimes, so, for those of you who have heard Streethawk, what do you think of it? Do you agree with my thoughts? What are your favourite songs? Where do you rank it amongst his catalogue? What are your favourite lyrics? Why did you spend the 90s cowering?