There is seemingly nothing new under the sun, especially when it comes to music. It’s easier to adhere to a specific genre than to try for something uncharted. And yet at times one discovers an artist that sounds like flying off the wheel of musical styles and venturing into a cosmos of parallel realities that may sound at times like memories from far away in space and time, although it all feels always a little off, not really wanting to overlay our expectations of what music has to sound like.

Eamon The Destroyer is an artist from Scotland whose output can be broadly described as experimental pop music, but there is of course much more to it than that. After his debut album A Small Blue Car from 2021, he released his second studio album We’ll Be Piranhas at the end of 2023. He used the two years between albums to refine his sound, and what we get to hear on the eight new tracks is quite astonishing. The opener The Choirmaster begins with distorted organ chords, before a trumpet and then a banjo join the ruckus. The first verse has an ominous mood before the chorus surprises with an unexpectedly catchy chorus, also adding some electric guitar that adds something of an indie rock layer. The following Rope, pre-released as a single a few weeks before the album, is also my personal highlight. Once again we get this spooky carnival atmosphere that would make this an ideal soundtrack for the early films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro (Delicatessen, The City Of Lost Children). This song comes with an incredible and unforgettable, moving chorus that would make this an instant world hit, of people only had better taste in music. Sonny Said is a gloomy ballad that proves that Eamon The Destroyer is also apt at the really big feelings. The album’s first half ends with Underscoring The Blues, a shorter track that begins in the artist’s meanwhile typical dark mood, but then surprises in its second half with a jumpy upbeat movement that never fails to bring a smile to my face.

The second half begins with the title track, which has a lot of melodica and sideshow atmosphere. A Pewter Wolf digs into nostalgic memories with heavy use of mellotron. A Call Coming is another well done ballad, before the album ends with My Stars, a bare and dry ending to an album that really took me by surprise. The first half of We’ll Be Piranhas is exceptional and out of this world, with the latter half maybe not having the same great songwriting, but still convincing with solid mood pieces. If you like Tom Waits’ mid-eighties period, or the vocal style of Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner, or the crazier moments on Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, then might want to check out Eamon The Destroyer. His music is still quite different from the artists I mentioned in the previous sentence, but there is a certain kinship that is hard to deny.

8 songs

36:34 minutes

***** ****

Genre: experimental pop

Label: Bearsuit

Artist pages:
Facebook