LABYRINTHITIS

LABYRINTHITIS is the thirteenth album from Dan Bejar’s solo project Destroyer, released on March 25, 2022 and coming two years after his previous studio effort, Have We Met.

Bejar broke down the title and the main themes of the album during an interview with Pitchfork:

I went through a phase of self-diagnosis, and [the term “Labyrinthitis,” which usually indicates a tedious inner ear disorder,] was something that came up. I was just like, “There’s something wrong with me.” It’s probably connected to tinnitus, which people who’ve made up loud music for decades get, and it gets aggravated. There’s probably vertigo and dizziness attached to it, or the feeling of being drunk for no apparent reason. That’s where it came from.
[…]
I’m [actually] good. No one wanted to diagnose me with it, unfortunately. I don’t officially have it. But I kept staring at it as a word. It seemed insane to me. It seems so invented, like something that Borges would come up with, or from a weird Lovecraft short story. Does that mean you’re addicted to mazes? It’s not a word I find very poetic. It also has bad electronic music or bad prog metal connotations to it, which I didn’t really mind.