Trouble In Dreams

Trouble in Dreams pulls upon 2006's "Rubies'" emotional strings, and in fact, tugs deeper while still retaining the strange wall of declamatory description. [Winter 2008, p.91]

He's convincingly sensitive even at his most arch. [21 Mar 2008, p.57]

Destroyer sounds focused as a band this time out, but there's an uneasiness at play in songs that tend to wander.

Trouble has its highs (the second chorus of “Rivers,” all eight minutes of “Shooting Rockets”) and lows (“The State,” a messy rocker that all but collapses in upon itself), but the band’s prowess and Bejar’s vision makes the songs an impressive, if jagged, piece of work.

He's free to let his freak flag fly with Destroyer, and Trouble in Dreams doesn't disappoint. [Apr 2008, p.152]

Many, many gosh-darn dudes go in for the "vaguely weird indie-rock music with oblique lyrics" schtick, and yet it's still an utter joy to hear Dan Bejar do it.

He backs up all the contrived drama with the kind of gorgeously lush music critics dream about. [Winter 20008, p.81]

Trouble In Dreams is full of amazing poetic adventures which could never flourish in the harsh light of the public eye.

Each album isn’t simply a solitary entry into the Destroyer oeuvre, but rather some tile in the mosaic or thread in the pattern.

The band's previous entry, 2006's "Destroyer's Rubies," was impressive enough, but Trouble In Dreams is even better.

On Destroyer's eight album, Bejar lives up to his stratospheric self-regard. [Apr 2008, p.94]

Trouble in Dreams is full of complex and sophisticated songs, so it's probably unfair to focus on one to the exclusion of others, but 'Shooting Rockets' deserves a little more attention, since it's the best evidence of the fact that, when it comes to proggy indie rock, Bejar's really in a league of his own right now.

The grandness Sheff describes is all over Trouble in Dreams like a paint polish, and 'The State' is the only instance in which it falls a bit flat.

Rubies was such a well-tooled formula that fans should be glad to have a worthy, likeminded successor: another hearty dose of musical-theater vocals, incandescent guitar solos, long swelling arrangements and jarring enfilades of exploding drums.

Great ambitious, hyper-real psychedelia.

His latest seals the deal.

Luckily for him, his band Destroyer more than makes up for his occasionally strained croak, and "Trouble in Dreams," their follow-up to 2006's acclaimed "Destroyer's Rubies," is an unqualified triumph.

Bejar's band--either completely at ease with or oblivious to his verbal flights of fancy--play rich, languid, bar-room indie-rock with florid bursts of guitar. [May 2008, p.94]

TID is a solid collection of his trademark epic ballads ready to be your summer patio soundtrack.

TID might be Bejar's most pompous, profane, and pastoral record, but it's also his least "intelligent," rational, or linearly clever.

Though it has its strong and weak points, Trouble In Dreams will no doubt receive well-deserved commendation. As a whole, however, it is the result of a grand but imperfect design (which, as we all know, has merit of its own).

Dan Bejar, who records as Destroyer when he’s not with the New Pornographers or his other projects, might have been perfectly suited for a career in pretty soft rock, mid-1970s style. The beginning of Destroyer’s eighth album, Trouble in Dreams (Merge), sounds like that’s what he decided to do, just strumming an acoustic guitar while electric guitars trace delicate leads.

A bit more polished, a little more cohesive, and a bunch more bizarre, but all still an attempt at reinventing rock ‘n’ roll from the inside out.

On Trouble in Dreams, Bejar and Destroyer have also shown that they can continue to write the literate, complex songs they and their audience love and expand and explore new melodic territory successfully.

Bejar may consistently tinker with his sound, but the output has been reliably solid, and Dreams is no exception.

Trouble follows the critically lauded 2006 masterstroke, "Destroyer's Rubies," and Bejar's band, returning from those sessions, makes it feel like a solid rock album.

If you can't get enough of Bejar, you'll obviously want to check this out, but most others will feel like they've been down this road before.

Dan Bejar is in "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mode: He's made an album that sounds nearly identical to the one before it. [Apr 2008, p.78]

I’ll be as straightforward in my assessment of his Trouble in Dreams as I can: this is his tenth solo album of the same old shit.