Destroyer's latest single, "Bologna," just autoplayed on Spotify, and even though the song is barely a week old, I was instantly struck by how it already sounds like vintage Dan Bejar. It's got the smoky noir swagger of Kaputt, the full-band grandeur of Rubies, and a dash of the synthetic sprawl of LABYRINTHITIS — as well as the signature high-pitched vibrato of lead guitarist Nicolas Bragg, a sound that unites all of my favourite Destroyer eras.
And yet the song also has something new, thanks to the presence of Fiver's Simone Schmidt, whose dramatic voice is the first one listeners hear on this track — a first for Destroyer, which has always been synonymous with Bejar's poetic sing-speak.
So, even if "Bologna" didn't immediately strike me in the way some of Destroyer's past lead singles have, it's only taken a week to work its way into the canon of classics from the Vancouver mainstay.
Dan's Boogie drops on March 28. Boogie on.