Today (Jan. 11), Canadian band Destroyer announced their 13th studio album, with lead single “Tintoretto, It’s For You” and its David Galloway-directed video out now. The album, titled LABYRINTHITIS, is due out March 25 via Merge Records and serves as the follow-up to the band’s 2020 release, Have We Met.
Written over the course of 2020 and recorded the following spring, with frontman/songwriter Dan Bejar working from Vancouver and frequent collaborator/producer John Collins working from the remote Galiano Island, the album marks another radical sonic shift for the band. With initial song inspiration stemming from disco, synth-pop band Art of Noise, and New Order, the forthcoming album combines glitzy instrumentation with lyrics that embrace a precise “widescreen maximalism,” according to a press release.
For the first time in the band’s career, Bejar played a major role in creating the single’s video. He talked about his experience developing the visual in a statement:
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. 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 …
“Tintoretto, It’s for You” director Galloway added, “It hopefully presents some loose giallo vibes despite the fact that it clearly isn’t a giallo at all. 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.”
In support of the album, Destroyer will be heading out on tour this spring. Last fall, the announcement was accompanied by the release of a tour documentary for Have We Met, also directed by Galloway.
Check out the video for “Tintoretto, It’s For You” and revisit Destroyer’s Have We Met documentary further down. Keep scrolling for more details on LABYRINTHITIS and preorder ahead of its March 25 release here.
LABYRINTHITIS Art:
