Kenwas produced byJosh Wellsof Black Mountain, who has been the drummer inDestroyersince 2012. The album was recorded in its entirety in the jam space/studio space that the group calls The Balloon Factory. However, unlike 2015’sPoison Season,Kenwas not recorded as a “band” record, though everyone in the band does make an appearance.

Of his twelfth studio album and its enigmatic title,Destroyer’s Dan Bejaroffers: “Sometime last year, I discovered that the original name for “The Wild Ones” (one of the great English-language ballads of the last 100 years or so) was “Ken.” I had an epiphany, I was physically struck by this information. In an attempt to hold on to this feeling, I decided to lift the original title of that song and use it for my own purposes.

“It’s unclear to me what that purpose is, or what the connection is. I was not thinking about Suede when making this record. I was thinking about the last few years of the Thatcher era. Those were the years when music first really came at me like a sickness, I had it bad. Maybe “The Wild Ones” speaks to that feeling, probably why Suede made no sense in America. I think “ken” also means “to know.”

1. Sky’s Grey
2. In the Morning
3. Tinseltown Swimming in Blood
4. Cover From the Sun
5. Saw You at the Hospital
6. A Light Travels Down the Catwalk
7. Rome
8. Sometimes in the World
9. Ivory Coast
10. Stay Lost
11. La Regle du Jeu