Destroyer

Dan Bejar, a collaborator with The New Pornographers and an idiosyncratic Canadian singer-songwriter who makes music as Destroyer, put forth a dynamic, mature interpretation of the soft-rock genre on 2011’s ‘Kaputt’. Bejar still loves his ’80s influences, but in the sparkly first single, ‘Dream Lover’, from his new album, ‘Poison Season’, he turns from smoothed-out soft rock to ‘Born in the USA’ Springsteen, trading cryptic murmurings and muted saxophone lines for a howling horn section and pounding drums. It’s a welcome change to see the poetic indie-rocker let loose.