keepers-7
keeper avg .538
The aptly named The Great Destroyer makes no bones whatsoever about being rock and being big. Opener "Monkey"**** starts with a snarl ("It's a suicide, shut up and drive" ), "Everybody's Song"**** pulls beauty from mechanical noise, and "California"**** is power pop with a capital power. As tired as any and all caparisons to Neil Young are, damned if "Silver Rider"**** (the second song here to be covered by Robert Plant in 2010) doesn't borrow the deliberate pace and power of "Cortez The Killer", not to mention the meteorological scale of Sparhawk's wailing guitar in "On The Edge Of". After the middle of the album fumbles a bit with "Step", "When I Go Deaf"**** returns with another epic dirge, while "Pissing"**** is more ambient, though driven by a pulsing keyboard. "Broadway"**** is a bit more problematic for me, as I don't really need Sparhawk's hokey observations of the big city; but after four minutes of pleasantries, the choir of Parkers transforms it into a sacrament - maybe something else we can thank the Mormons for. After that the modest acoustic "Death Of A Salesman" and 60's pop "Walk Into The Sea" are fine but suffer by comparison.
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