ken

Dan Bejar rarely seems to let himself get too comfortable. Picking up on the downbeat sophistication of <i>Kaputt</i> and <i>Poison Season</i>, <i>ken</i> is a lushly produced album that juxtaposes beautiful, New Order-style disco-pop (“Tinseltown Swimming in Blood”) and synth-dappled ballads (“Saw You at the Hospital”) with Bejar’s breezy deadpan and ever-evocative lyrics. “Stay lost,” he sings, “Never found/Out on the street/In the Book of the Dead/For a living.” It's the closest a writer like this gets to a rallying cry.