''Kaputt'' is the ninth album by Canadian

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

band Destroyer. It was released on January 25, 2011 by

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

and

Dead Oceans Records Dead Oceans is an American independent record label formed in 2007 and based in Bloomington, Indiana, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Dead Oceans is part of Secretly Group, which also ...

. The album was leaked towards the end of 2010. The vinyl edition of the album features bonus material on side three written largely by frequent Destroyer collaborator Ted Bois. This material is also included in the European CD version of the album credited as 'The Laziest River'. The album was named as a shortlisted (one of 10) nominee for the 2011

Polaris Music Prize The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 with a $20,000 cash prize; the prize was incr ...

award.

Reception

''Kaputt'' received widespread acclaim from music critics upon its release. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 84, based on 38 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". In a five-star review of the album for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Alexis Petridis was complimentary of the album's stylistic similarities and lyrical allusions to 1980s popular culture, writing that ''Kaputt'' "swerves accusations of archness or kitsch" because of the strength of its songs. Petridis further stated that the album "feels like an open love letter to a vanished pop era: it's unique and warm and beautiful, as love letters are supposed to be." Laura Snapes of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' called it Daniel Bejar's "finest work to date, and excessive, but irresistibly so." ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' placed ''Kaputt'' second on their list of the Top 50 Albums of 2011. It also placed on year-end best album lists from ''

Uncut Uncut may refer to: * ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship * ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997 * '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...

'' (number 31) and ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: * Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * ' ...

'' (number 41), among others. In August 2014, ''Kaputt'' was placed as number 16 on a list published by ''

'' of The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far (2010–2014). In 2019, they ranked the album at number 22 in their list of "The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s"; editor Jeremy D Larson wrote that "Dan Bejar made a masterpiece out of a comedown, a glassy-eyed look at a world starting to collapse." In the same year, ''Pitchfork'' also ranked "Chinatown" at number 86 on its list of the 200 Best Songs of the 2010s.

Track listing

CD and digital version

The European CD version contains "The Laziest River" as a single track after "Song for America".

Vinyl version

Personnel

The following people contributed to ''Kaputt:'' Destroyer * Daniel Bejar – composition, musician *Ted Bois – musician, cover photography *Pete Bourne – musician *Nicolas Bragg – musician * John Collins – musician,

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

, production * Joseph Shabason – musician Additional personnel *Cady Bean-Smith – design *David Carswell – production *J.P. Carter –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Sibel Thrasher – musician *

Kara Walker Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. She is best ...

– composition

References

External links

Destroyer at Merge Records
{{Authority control 2011 albums Destroyer (band) albums Dead Oceans albums Merge Records albums