In essence, no flaws and quite a few high points here, the opener “Crimson Tide” one of them.
Despite the few moments where Bejar lulls the listener into an apathy paralysis, Have We Met is one of the strongest albums in Destroyer’s fruitful career.
If you’ve enjoyed anything Dan Bejar has done under the Destroyer moniker, you’ll love Have We Met. If you’ve never heard a Destroyer album before, you’ll probably love it too.
Have We Met, though perhaps less ambitious than Destroyer’s best work, is nevertheless their freshest and most enjoyable record in years.
Even at their poppiest, Destroyer remain an acquired taste. This time around, it’s one more than worth acquiring.
Even after more than 20 years of recordings, Bejar remains a delightfully unpredictable and inscrutable writer.
Dan Bejar's latest electro album offers a sharp, dark look at the world today – and he put himself in the firing line.
With a dozen albums under his belt, Bejar is known for reinventing himself and setting new sonic parameters from album to album. Have We Met is another new departure, yet it still has that familiar strange storytelling swagger that’s at the heart of Destroyer.
Dan Bejar seems omnipresent on Destroyer's first album of the 2020s, moving through the arrangements at his own whim.
With time, the record reveals itself to be one of considerable depth and feeling. It’s elusive, but worth giving yourself over to.
Have We Met is nearly impossible to want to exit once you’ve started to mentally map its sounds.
It's only after several listens that the album's wholeness clarifies. Because the tracks tend to be downtempo, reflective, and downright sleepy, it takes time and patience to realize Bejar is working like a good storyteller.
Have We Met shares melodic strengths with his previous high-water marks.
Have We Met marks a return to Kaputt's pusher aesthetic and eager melodicism, with "Crimson Tide", "The Raven" and "The Man in Black's Blues" all serving as irresistible examples of Bejar's blend of soft rock, dream-pop and more idiosyncratic elements.
A hermetic record that is practically self-contained within a computer hard drive. Yet Have We Met never lacks for atmosphere, or a sense of unpredictability that feels kinetic.
Despite its digressions, Have We Met is rich and varied enough to offer more than just throwback thrills. It's further proof that amid both destruction and devotion, Bejar's voice remains compelling.
While Have We Met doesn't sound quite like top-shelf Destroyer, it's a fine testament to Bejar's talent and his gift for having things both ways at once, lyrically droll and musically cool and on point.
Dan Bejar's new album is a loose, spontaneous collection of tracks that's light but lacking a little of his trademark depth.
‘Have We Met’ seems brighter and more airy than his previous records, which were dripping in sleazy noir. His outlook on the world is no happier than it was before, but the lack of a bigger band brings out a fresher sound in the Destroyer canon.
Musically, Have We Met is one of Bejar’s most interesting so far. But the grating oh-so-indie-look-at-me lyrics bash against the beauty of the beats.
Even by his own standards, Bejar’s 13th album as Destroyer is oblique.
#9 | / | Gothamist |
#17 | / | Exclaim! |
#18 | / | Pitchfork |
#19 | / | NBHAP |
#20 | / | Under the Radar |
#21 | / | No Ripcord |
#28 | / | Northern Transmissions |
#35 | / | Treble |
#36 | / | Uncut |
#37 | / | Les Inrocks |