Bands Sing Their Songs And Then Disappear

Destroyer “In the Morning”

“In the Morning” was built to deliberately evoke the sound of early New Order, specifically the way that band created this overwhelming grey atmosphere and a rhythmic momentum that’s like pacing around nervously in circles. Like most Destroyer songs, Dan Bejar creates a familiar, nostalgic musical setting and knocks it off kilter simply by singing on it. The character of his voice is incredibly distinctive, and he always sings with this odd mix of aloofness and sentimentality, like he’s visiting someplace but is embarrassed to be a tourist.

Songwriting is a form of time travel for Bejar, but it’s not always clear whether he has a particular mission or destination. The lyrics of “In the Morning” don’t seem to evoke anything particular about the early ‘80s, and he’s too young to have anything other than childhood memories of the era. But I get the impulse to go back in time to a period just slightly ahead of your time – this is, in fact, one of my greatest fantasies. (And something I’ve also indulged in music, with the survey sets on this site.) With this in mind, the crucial lyric of this song is the refrain “you wanted it to be cool.” Maybe part of this song is in wondering why things from this period, particularly New Order, have been considered cool for so long. What is it about this feeling that never seems to go away? Is it about it sounding cool, or because it’s the sound of decline and it hasn’t stopped being relevant?

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