{"product_id":"destroyer-labyrinthitis-lp","title":"Destroyer - Labyrinthitis [LP]","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLABYRINTHITIS brims with mystic and intoxicating terrain, the threads of Dan Bejar’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003enotes woven through by allusions at once eerily familiar and intimately perplexing. The \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003erecord circuitously draws ever inward, each turn offering giddy surprise, anxious esoterica, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand thumping emotionality at equal odds. “Do you remember the mythic beast?” Bejar asks \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eat the outset of “Tintoretto, It’s for You,” the album’s first single, casting torchlight over \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethe labyrinth’s corridors. Delivered in a Marlene Dietrich smolder, Bejar’s lyrical menace \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eseeps like smoke through the brazen march’s woozy synths and dizzied guitar. “There’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003esome character here that feels new to me, a low drawl, an evening gown draped over a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003epiano,” Bejar says of the song. Throughout, LABYRINTHITIS insists that everything’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003enot all right, but that even isolation and dissolution can be a source of joy—stepping into \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethe sunlight at the other end of the maze in your ear, Bejar strolling alongside like a wildmaned,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eleisure-suited minotaur.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMore than an arcane puzzle for the listener, LABYRINTHITIS warps and winds through \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eunfamiliar territory for Bejar as well. Written largely in 2020 and recorded the following \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003espring, the album most often finds Bejar and frequent collaborator John Collins seeking the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emythic artifacts buried somewhere under the dance floor, from the glitzy spiral of “It Takes \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ea Thief ” to the Books-ian collage bliss of the title track. Initial song ideas ventured forth \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003efrom disco, Art of Noise, and New Order, Bejar and Collins championing the over-the-top \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emadcappery. “John is in his 50s, and I’m almost there, but we used to go to clubs,” Bejar \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003elaughs. “Our version may have been punk clubs, but our touchstones for the album were \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emore true to disco.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBejar and Collins conducted their questing in the height of isolation, Collins on the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eremote Galiano Island and Bejar in nearby Vancouver, sending ideas back and forth \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewhen restrictions didn’t allow them to meet. “From the vocal manipulation to the layered \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eelectronics, making this record pushed us to a new place, and reaching that place felt \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003estressful,” Bejar recalls. “But I trust that that stress is a good feeling.” That cuddly anxiety \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eexcels in tracks like “Eat the Wine, Drink the Bread.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLyrically, LABYRINTHITIS embraces a widescreen maximalism, blocks of text dotted \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewith subversions and hedges. Building from the koans of Have We Met, Bejar continues \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eto carve his words precisely, toying with expectations and staid symbols, while Collins’ \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eproduction reconstructs the pieces into a unified whole. “Even though everyone recorded \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ein their own isolated corners, this is the most band record that we’ve done in the last few \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eyears,” Bejar says. “Everything’s manipulated, but the band is really present, and our plans \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewound up betrayed by what the tracks wanted. I’ve written 300, 400 songs in my adult \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003elife—I don’t know how to do anything else—but this album feels like a breakthrough into \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003enew territory.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThat unprepared synchronicity and mutual discovery shines on “June,” a six-and-a-halfminute \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003etrack that features a blend of funk bass, fluttering synth, and charred poetry \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003erecitation. While Bejar initially envisioned LABYRINTHITIS as a straight dance record \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e(“just like Donna Summer’s greatest hits”), the end of “June” explodes that simplicity into \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ea million shining pieces, finding joy in mutual discovery instead of isolated certainty. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLABYRINTHITIS closes on “The Last Song,” Bejar singing and strumming all alone, a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003egentle yet no more settled exodus out of the fractured dance party. “I try and sneak in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003esweet moments where I can,” Bejar laughs. As LABYRINTHITIS closes, the reorienting \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003evertigo lingers, its implacable aura and bewitching lyrics wriggling ever deeper into the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emind.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cdiv data-bt-autogen\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklist:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIt’s in Your Heart Now\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSuffer\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eJune\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll My Pretty Dresses\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTintoretto, It’s for You\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLabyrinthitis\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEat the Wine, Drink the Bread\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIt Takes a Thief\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe States\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe Last Song\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUPC:\u003c\/strong\u003e 673855078915\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLabel:\u003c\/strong\u003e Merge Records\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRelease Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e 3.25.22\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Vinyl\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Merge Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52028627026151,"sku":"517161","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0625\/2481\/7639\/files\/4045915-2783634.jpg?v=1777674010","url":"https:\/\/monumentsinruin.com\/products\/destroyer-labyrinthitis-lp","provider":"Monuments in Ruin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}