The Established History of Rock and Roll rightly reckons the influence of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison to be nearly limitless in scope and scale—upon the slender shoulders of these two diminutive titans rests much of the firmament of serious popular song. Their canonical works from the 1960s (Highway 61 Revisited, Astral Weeks, etc.) are liturgical documents within the critical community, considered so unimpeachable as to serve as permanent bulwarks against the indulgent drift and weird sermonizing that slipped into their work during the 1970s and ’80s. That’s the popular narrative, anyway.
Dan Bejar, the contrarian genius who records as Destroyer, takes a different view. Poison Season, his ninth full-length, released last week, draws conspicuous inspiration from Dylan and Morrison’s oft-derided, wildly underappreciated devotional periods. The relationship between Poison Season and such great late-’70s and early-’80s works as Dylan’s Street Legal and Morrison’s No Guru, No Method, No Teacher will be instantly recognizable to adherents. Just as easily recognizable (to this adherent, anyway) is the album’s confirmation that Destroyer’s remarkable catalog will one day rival those of Bejar’s idols…