Five Spanish Songs
For a stopgap measure, this five-song EP is quite the ambitious artistic endeavor. Destroyer’s Dan Bejar mines his Spanish heritage by singing the songs of Antonio Luque, frontman for the Spanish alt-goth rock band Sr. Chinarro. This gives Bejar the chance to interpret and record songs while staying one step removed from the process. Not having written the songs and having heard them performed by others gives Bejar a comfortable perspective as to what he can do to the material. For listeners who don\'t know the language, a few human musical truths still come forth. A Giant Sand/Calexico vibe heightens the laid-back intimacy of “Maria de las nieves,” and acoustic Spanish guitar nicely complements “Del monton.” A fully charged electric guitar in a Stones-like mode comes barreling out for “El rito.” A sense of rhythm informs “Babieca,” and a sense of forlorn romance emits from “Bye bye.” The bonus track “Untitled congas” is 45 seconds of conga playing. Overall, this set fits in logically with what Destroyer has recently been doing, making a cultured follow-up to 2011’s *Kaputt*.
Dan Bejar's Five Spanish Songs proves that his peculiar presence is unmistakeable even when he’s singing someone else’s songs in a foreign tongue. The EP also serves as a North American introduction to Seville songwriter Antonio Luque, a prolific cult hero whose band Sr. Chinarro originally recorded the tracks Bejar covers here.
On his new Spanish-language EP, Dan Bejar continues to push himself to explore new territory.
It’s ridiculous on the face of it: Destroyer recorded an EP of songs in Spanish because of leader Dan Bejar’s conviction…
With Dan Bejar’s piquant way with words a substantial part of Destroyer’s appeal, Five Spanish Songs may herald disappointment for those who don’t share the Canadian’s bilingual abilities. The result of waning interest in English’s expressive possibilities, it sees Bejar sing in the tongue of another in two senses – not only switching language, but covering songs by Seville songwriter Antonio Luque of Sr. Chinarro.
It's hard to decide exactly where Five Spanish Songs fits into the Destroyer catalogue.
Dan Bejar shows a little love for an influence and takes a break from English with a handful of covers, deeming the English language "spent, despicable, not easily singable" and "good for business transactions, but that's about it."
Review Of Destroyer's upcoming EP "Five Spanish Songs". On 11/25 Destroyer will release a five song EP written by Antonio Luque of the band Sr. Chinarro.