Although I wonder about Destroyer as well (I don't have any albums) -- from your fave ezine:
"Let me get this off my chest right away: Your Blues, the latest album from Vancouver-based singer/songwriter and New Pornographers contributor Daniel Bejar, could be the soundtrack for a Sega Genesis game about kittens studying post-structuralism. It is host to unapologetic MIDI instrumentation, glaringly theatrical vocals, and that ubiquitous but rarely implemented synth preset called "aah voice." Much more so than with any other Destroyer album, the aesthetic of Your Blues can be intensely jarring, and will likely annoy the fuck out of many, many people."
Though the followup is quite glowing:
"Ultimately, though, it's the most initially vexing aspects of Your Blues that prove the most endearing, memorable, and surprisingly touching. Like Bejar's 2002 release This Night, Your Blues constitutes a fundamental challenge to deeply ingrained conventions of sincerity and emotional honesty. The record's conceptual brilliance lies largely in Bejar's ability to craft deeply moving passages out of ostensibly artificial and contrived elements, subtly suggesting that all music, if not all human expression, is in effect some sort of artifice. Bejar's critical engagement with codified aesthetic techniques certainly renders Your Blues a less immediately "accessible" record, and can at first come off as kitschy or detached. But the album's unique and defiant expression makes this the most holistically accomplished album Bejar has released to date."
