Daily Download: "The Music Lovers," Destroyer, from "Notorious Lightning

After recording last year's brilliant bedroom-glam MIDI-fantasia "Your Blues" (which would have gotten at least an honorable mention on my year-end top 10 list if I'd remembered), Destroyer's Dan Bejar made the strange, Dylanesque decision to tour the record accompanied by Frog Eyes, an abrasive, punky Victoria band. I heard their New York show and thought it was dreadful, an unpleasant mess of noise. But now that I've heard "Notorious Lightning and Other Works," a post-tour rerecording of six "Your Blues" songs with Frog Eyes, I'm sure they were either having an off night, or that (more likely) the Mercury Lounge sound man was making a hash of the mix. Bejar's songs are extraordinarily robust, and they take a bruising here but come out lean and fierce and completely reinvented. My favorite is "The Music Lovers," which is now a slow 6/8 tune. Bejar still sounds like Bowie, but this time he's Bowie backed by the world's first punk-Motown ensemble. A free download of "An Actor's Revenge" is also available.