Ideas for Songs

Unless you've been following Dan Bejar since his earliest Vancouver days, chances are you're coming to Ideas for Songs after the relatively high profile (in the indie rock world) of his albums like Rubies and Kaputt. This collection originally came out on cassette and features a set of four-track recordings that showcase Bejar's burgeoning songwriting and twisted troubadour leanings. Some songs sound so completely of the '90s indie rock lo-fi zeitgeist that it's remarkable that this didn't get wider recognition at the time. His style here combines Daniel Johnston–esque simple beauty with the more hushed oddness of a band like The Microphones. But all the Destroyer elements that would come to be embraced in later years are present. There are huge, declamatory choruses, odd literary phrases, and unexpected changes. You won't find the compositional strengths that he gained in later albums, but you will find him spitting out ideas in his own peculiar art-school manner and opening up the creative vocal floodgates.