Dan Bejar has announced his latest album as Destroyer today: scheduled for release on March 25 via Merge Records, LABYRINTHITIS, was written mostly in 2020, recorded last spring, and worked on remotely with frequent collaborator John Collins. Along with the news comes the mischievous lead single “Tintoretto, It’s for You” and an accompanying video directed by David Galloway.
“Do you remember the mythic beast?” Bejar asks at the song’s beginning. “A last minute cancelation at the last supper,” he shakily sings. There’s a trickle of shrill piano and a frolicking guitar that’s shadowed by a bobbing electric drumbeat before the chorus bursts into thrilling electro-punk. “Tintoretto, it’s for you / The ceiling’s on fire and the contract is binding.”
“I had an idea of writing a couple lines on the idea of ‘mystery’ and ‘goin nowhere,’ as they are two of my favorite themes,” Bejar said. “That and the Grim Reaper and being pursued by some silent, unnamable thing that constantly lurks one foot to the left of you. Especially as the world’s decay becomes increasingly less abstract. Also wanted to write on the romance of terror. The song ‘Tintoretto, It’s for You’ speaks to all these things, oddly enough so does the video…”
“It hopefully presents some loose giallo vibes despite the fact that it clearly isn’t a giallo at all,” director Galloway added about the visual. “Nobody dies, nothing is explored at length, and it’s ultimately a collection of neighbourhood red herrings. All leads that go nowhere. But that’s the mystery. That’s the mystery about music videos.”
Watch the video below, and pre-order LABYRINTHITIS here.
