In looking back on the Destroyer catalog, I’m tempted to skip over Notorious Lightning and Other Works (2005). I’d be justified, since it’s an EP, and didn’t feature any new songs. It revisits six from Your Blues, this time with a full band (and not just any band, but Frog Eyes). It doesn’t readily exhibit progress. At best, it’s a lateral move, and, at worst, it’s a tiny step back. It’s kind of like Destroyer tried to smooth things over with rock n’ roll (and confused Destroyer fans) after the assertion that was Your Blues. Even interpreting it with the latter understanding, hey, it’s just an EP, easy to forgive, and easy to forget.
Obviously, I’m still writing. Because, once again, I am inspired by other people’s criticism. I was reading the reviews of Notorious Lightning, and two stood out. The first is by Hannah Frank, writing for the Yale Herald, and who I cited in my previous post. Hers is a stream of consciousness statement on Notorious Lightning (and, really the entire Destroyer canon–I think Ms. Frank and I could be good friends), and she has an interesting take…
These blustery six songs on this new record render the cold, crisp mathematics of Your Blues somewhat more accessible; where Your Blues was immaculate, maybe hollow, Notorious Lightning and Other Works is prone to flatulence and booger-picking, the kind of organism that displays its organism-ness in all its farty and snotty glory, such that you cannot deny its vivacity, its obnoxiousness, its beauty.
The other review that stood out to me is from a website called BigYawn.net, and it’s not at all positive. BigYawn.net offers a rating of 1.2 out of 10, which seems higher than what the review would suggest. Here I was, wondering whether Notorious Lightning warranted the same regard, value-wise, as the full-length albums. For the BigYawn.net writer, it’s a powerful enough recording to suggest that everyone involved quit their jobs in shame, and that listeners contemplate suicide.
The very strong, very opposite reactions from Hannah Frank of the Yale Herald and jaron of BigYawn.net suggest to me that Notorious Lightning is more powerful than I’d suspected. My own reaction, though, can be found in my earlier suggestion–that this is an offering made to smooth things over, a defensive tactic. And Destroyers ought never to be on the defensive.
The defense is strong, though. As I listen to the EP, the beauty of the words and melodies is reemphasized. “See, these are good songs, just listen to them with drums and guitars!” But the other defense being made is of the choice to record Your Blues the way it was recorded. The original version of “Notorious Lightning,” I think, sounds so much more correct than the version being offered here. Hearing these (in my opinion, very good) alternate versions serves somehow to reveal the beauty of the originals.
Maybe, though, it’s not defensive at all. Maybe, to quote another favorite band, Centro-matic, this is an assertion of “songs above sound.” There is a sentiment of transcendence here, in that one song can sound great in very different expressions. My favorite song from Notorious Lightning, “New Ways of Living” sounded so sweetly sad and reflective on Your Blues, but here it sounds angry and energetic. Both versions are beautiful, because the song, itself, is beautiful.
A song is not the instrument that plays it.
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