New Music: Destroyer – ‘Chinatown’

Photo by David Greenwald

“I think the world does not like me grim,” Destroyer’s Dan Bejar noted in a rare moment of lyrical self-reflection on this year’s “Grief Point.” The studio version of “Chinatown,” the lead track from next year’s Kaputt, is considerably less dark and growling than its live incarnation, a return to the easy pop of “Watercolours into the Ocean” and a surprising but glorious embrace of Balearic grooves and sax solos. Lock up your daughters, 2011.

Destroyer – “Chinatown”: mp3

(Kaputt is due Jan. 25 from Merge, pre-order now)

Previously: Destroyer – “Chinatown” (Live)