REVIEW: LABRINTH - COSMIC OPERA ACT I

4/5

He Is The Cosmos

Past is prelude, and it only seems like we've just been woken up from the September that British singer, songwriter, rapper and record producer, Labrinth, gave us his sonically charged 'PRELUDE' E.P. The perfect precursor to this. His new album, to awaken the love of a calm January, 'Cosmic Opera Act I'. It's time to act right in 2026, because the great Brit legacy maker is promising us even more to follow with their part one. Just like the seasons of his soundtrack. From Simon Cowell to Tinie Tempah. An 'Earthquake' up in here, to a 'Euphoria' with Zendaya, this cosmic boy has gone out of this world. Labrinth is now a legend. Going forth with his fourth album, and first since 2023's 'Ends & Begins', the LSD member (him, Sia, Diplo) is given us a whole new electronic earth. The imagination of this misfit kid is inspired.

Back to black, like Winehouse, with a deep, blood wine shirt on backwards to cover, this is album art. As soon as the for the record intro tells us this is 'Something Like An Opera', we know it's exactly, outstandingly, that. And the bass dominant 'Debris' that follows and falls like 'Get Out', will shake you to your core. "The roof is on fire/Nothing left of me/Party at my house/Now it's all debris/Now it's all debris/Picking up the pieces/Just another morning/Same old routine/Now it's all debris/I don't know these people/Welcome to the ruin/I'm the centerpiece/What the f### am I doing?", Timothy McKenzie asks. Right now, nobody mixes the Saturday night fight with Sunday sacrament quite like this Tim. This modern day classical influence continues on the INCREDIBLE 'IMPLOSION', in all-caps. Not to mention the mad scientist single, and sensational music video set of 'S.W.M.F.' ("Star Wars, motherf#####", indeed!) and the heavenly highlight, 'God Spoke'. Like this will, to you.

Space feels like the first and foremost frontier (I know that's 'Star Trek', quit your Jabb-ering, fans of 'Wars'), on this album that reaches for infinity like the cosmos. Delving deeper at an 'Interstellar' rate, further into the labyrinth, 'into the black hole' searches through your subconscious. All before the 'Big Bad Wolf', huffs, puffs and blows your house on the hill, all the way down, with lines like, "I'm f#####g awesome/My head get bigger than Austin/Hear my ego contorting/Feel myself like I'm choking/I eating on your offspring, I'm Mike Tyson, no cocaine/Make you feel those endorphins, man, I'm just too important/Now they're all saying there's something wrong/I got my head in the f#####g sun/All of my dreams get undone/I walk around like an unsung." Now, if you thought the sensational singer and songwriter had given up on the lyrical licks of rapping, then like a notorious one, you're dead wrong. 'I Keep My Promises' and McKenzie keeps moving in any direction the music in him takes him.

After the opulence of an 'Opera Interlude', Labrinth conducts an 'Orchestra' that will have you on your feet and up in applauding arms like the Royal Albert Hall. Just imagine how this set would sound here for the Hackney hometown hero. "Trumpet, trombone, violin, check/Here we got the sound of a feeble attempt/Begging for applause that I need to exist/When I bring the sound that will keep you possessed/I give you the horn, and I give you the bass/Larger than life when I'm hiding my pain/I'm the f#####g best 'cause I claw for my fame/Praying it's the cure to my sizey charade (Go)." Moving in a time lapse, like the singles cover art. This might just be Labrinth's best yet, from an artist whose magnum opus might just be his whole career, up in here. He understands the loneliness of 'Euphoria' and brings it all back for 'Still In Love With The Pain'. But when he is left 'Running A Red', akin to the shirt, that's when his heart bleeds all over the studio's floor. "Yeah, baby, I'm a slave to living on your medicine/'Til I walk upon that day/'Til I run up on that." There's a hidden yearn that burns here. Thank God, it wasn't left on the cutting room floor. We can't wait until he acts again in this opera. Like the prelude, this is just an overture. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Debris', 'God Spoke', 'Running A Red'.

Spin This: Labrinth - 'PRELUDE E.P.'