Destroyer

“FIVE SPANISH SONGS”

Merge Records

Dan Bejar, the central force of the Canadian indie-rock obfuscation project named Destroyer, issued an A-plus news release in mid-September for what might have looked like a minor record. It wasn’t very long. Here’s the first half:

“It was 2013. The English language seemed spent, despicable, not easily singable. It felt over for English; good for business transactions, but that’s about it. The only other language I know is Spanish, and the only Spanish songs I really know are those of Sr. Chinarro, led by Antonio Luque.”

That release is basically the same as his singing voice: lordly, saturnine, abstracted, probably dissembling, unreasonable, maybe even reluctant, but in search of something.

“Five Spanish Songs,” Destroyer’s record of Sr. Chinarro covers, forces him to deal with someone else’s reality, and he chose well. His Spanish fans will be gratified. Sr. Chinarro, formed in 1990, is from Seville. Luque is, like Bejar, a kind of modern folk singer-songwriter working within indie rock, squirrelly and literary, with vague, bright-image lyrics sung in a tired voice.

Bejar’s versions of Luque’s songs — “Maria de las Nieves,” “Del Monton,” “El Rito,” “Babieca,” and “Bye Bye” — are a little more down at the heels than the Sr. Chinarro originals, but they’re honest covers of lovely songs, sung with care. This could be a gateway record for someone curious about Destroyer, even more so for those who know Spanish: As he pays homage to a peer, Bejar eases up on his distancing effect.

— Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

Sky Ferreira

“NIGHT TIME, MY TIME”

Capitol Records

Sky Ferreira isn’t the first 21-year-old fashion model to turn her attentions from the runway to the musical stage. Lord knows, she won’t be the last. Yet for several years she’s been touted (mostly by her label, which signed Sky when she was 15) as a sultrier, smokier Britney Spears, and therefore the salvation of young adult electro-pop. The edginess that makes her so dynamic was implied by associations with risqué photographer Terry Richardson and a beau arrested for carrying heroin.

Luckily, Ferreira delivers the sad bad-girl goods with bugged-out ease, from top (the topless shower-scene album cover) to bottom (the bass-heavy new wave of “Love in Stereo”). The industrial clang of “Omanko” is like a beautiful woman with awful shoes — pure pop with an ugly noisy ambience. The oversize guitars and crackling beats of “You’re Not the One” handsomely complement Ferreira’s clear, corrosive voice. She may come across on occasion like a Cat Power impersonator, especially on the dreary title track and the worrisome “Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay).” But she turns that on its ear with the chipper “Kristine,” poking at poseurs of all stripes.

— A.D. Amorosi,

The Philadelphia Inquirer

One Direction

“MIDNIGHT MEMORIES”

Columbia Records

One Direction isn’t really a boy band.

They don’t do harmonies or synchronized moves, and they rarely do dance music. On “Midnight Memories,” they stray even further from the boy band mold, focusing more on guitar-driven rock and trading off vocal lines rather than singing in unison as a group.

It’s a smart move, since these songs will certainly have a longer shelf life than most standard boy band fare and actually give the British quintet a way to continue to grow as artists into adulthood if they like. “Midnight Memories” is packed with songs that are catchy and on trend, but not so timely they will soon sound dated.

The opener, “Best Song Ever,” sets the tone musically, with its roaring guitars and Clash-like yelps. Much of the album has an ‘80s feel, perfect for parents to reminisce while their tweens keep the CD on repeat.

On the other end of the spectrum are the poppier renovations of Mumford & Sons-styled folk, especially “Happily.” In fact, the rollicking folk of “Through the Dark” and “Something Great” could easily trick some Lumineers-loving adult-alternative types into thinking they were listening to the Next Big Neo-Folk Thing.

Actually, the lads carry that off so well, it may actually be where One Direction is heading next if they tire of being pop idols.

— Glenn Gamboa, Newsday