Destroyer: “Kaputt” (Kaputt, 2011)
I kinda wish I had a different favorite Destroyer song to write about here. But let’s face it, there’s a reason this is the most common favorite off Kaputt. It’s just so good. The video is like icing a cake that’s already been iced three times.
So I will talk about it, but as a mental exercise, I’m going to try to write the rest of this post without using the following words: 80s, soft, and smooth. This may not be possible. Bear with me.
Actually there is something I want to talk about in this song that I don’t know if I’ve seen mentioned anywhere, which is the guitar. There are two. One is embedded in the rhythm track, and it has a sort of reedy, chorused tone that harks back to a certain decade (and to my ears, to a certain album by a certain Mr. P. Gabriel—“That Voice” came up on the shuffle in the car today, so maybe that why he’s on my mind).
But the guitar I really want to address is the one that has a little bit of surfy reverb dripping off of it. It comes in out of nowhere after the first verse and kind of tears things open for a second, then goes back into whatever crevice it leapt out of and only comes back for two meek little smears of distortion late in the song.
This would be a great song without it, but with it, it’s a FREAKING GREAT SONG. Something about it—the way is sets off the, uh, what do I want to call this? Fluidity? Pillowy-ness?—completes the song in a way that few other things could.
Honestly, I never really liked Destroyer before I heard “Bay of Pigs” back in 2009, when it was put out as a teaser for Dan Bejar’s new direction. I think the moment where, however many minutes into this epic song, he declares, “Love is a political beast with jaws for a mouth,” was the turning point for me. It was so ridiculous but so well-executed that I had to cave in to it. Plus, it reminded me a little of Legendary Pink Dots.
I disagree with the consensus that this is the clear highlight of Kaputt (it falls squarely in the record’s middle tier for me), but, hey, I’m happy when any Destroyer song inspires mass adoration.
Source: everygreatsongever