Top 20 of 2011: 3. Destroyer – Kaputt

3. Destroyer – Kaputt

Destroyer’s ninth album is the most interesting thing to happen to music this year — and maybe even longer.

Singer-songwriter Dan Bejar’s acoustic guitar disappeared in a haze of smoke, drugs and nostalgia, replaced by saxophones, flutes and synths. Kaputt‘s light jazz and funk lifts his obscured poetry to a cinematic high. Bejar creates musical images of cocaine dealers walking through Chinatown in the late ’70s and hazy dreams of New York City streets.

Though it heavily recalls the ’70s and ’80s, nothing’s ever been made that sounds like Kaputt. Bejar treads a fine line between irony and Steely Dan worshiping. Whichever way he’s actually leaning, it’s fantastic.

I wouldn’t expect Kaputt II. Knowing Bejar, he’s bound to come up with some incredible and bizarre new direction soon.