vinyl LP pressing

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“The Grand Ole Opry of Death is breathless.” It’s the kind of instantly memorable, entirely inscrutable lyric that could only come from Dan Bejar, but the album that the song “The Raven” is from is unlike any Destroyer record he’s ever made. Bejar made demos, just guitar and keyboards, in GarageBand and then sent the files to longtime collaborator and New Pornographers member John Collins, giving him carte blanche to reshape them as he pleased — though his concept for Have We Met was “computer music,” inspired by the “sound design” in things like “shitty David Fincher movies.” Songs like “Crimson Tide,” “It Just Doesn’t Happen to Anyone” and “Cue Synthesizer” are gleaming, synthetic creations with Big ’80s drums and even bigger ’80s guitar soloing, but also modern and alien. Dan is in whisper mode, in the eye of this storm, sounding wonderfully bemused at these creations he only somewhat knew were coming but still only sounds like Destroyer.