REVIEW: LABRINTH - ENDS & BEGINS

4/5

Euphoric. 

Dig into the 'Electronic Earth' of epic English singer/songwriter Labrinth's world, and you will unearth a Bowie like labyrinth of mood music for your sound board. Beginning his career under Disturbing London, great British rapper Tinie Tempah (uncredited on 'Pass Out' and the officially on 'Frisky'), the singer slash rapper truly broke out with his dynamite debut. Dropping bombs with his massive 'Earthquake' that featured half of London and even Busta Rhymes on the remix. But it was his 'Beneath Your Beautiful' debut with the hottest singer at that time Emeli Sandé that really showcased his velvet vocal talents. Talents that have taken him to supergroups with the voice that is Sia and DJ and producer Diplo (LSD), who also has a new album out this music Friday ('Piano Republik') and the scoring of soundtracks for the greatest show on TV (HBO's 'Euphoria'). Now the prolific producer Timothy Lee McKenzie formerly signed with Simon Cowell (without a talent show) is going it alone for the first time since 2019's 'Imagination & The Misfit Kid' with his 'Ends & Begins'. Sonically, perhaps his best yet. Get ready to feel euphoria all over again. 

Uncredited on the album tracks titles like the first time this Hackney rapper passed out, this solo affair does boast two blockbuster appearances, mind you. The follow-up to the first force of a single 'Kill For Your Love', 'Never Felt So Long' is accompanied by the one and only Billie Eilish and of course her songwriting brother Finneas O'Connell. "I thought you were my new best friend (My)/Wish I knew better then/Who knew you were just out to get me?/My whole world just fell apart", they sing together before Labrinth laces, "All white leather/You know this man ain't s### without you in the interior (I'm dyin' somewhere in the dark" with year long sing-along yearns.

Hollywood really comes calling in 'The Feels' of the opening that will really hit you in yours. As 'Malcolm & Marie', 'Dune', 'Spider-Man' MJ and of course 'Euphoria' star Zendaya Coleman brings back their high-scoring soundtrack work together for a song featured in the second season, but not on the score of the actual album. Zendaya is it in first-name only turns like Beyoncé. She is HER. The leading lady to this man. The ends to his begins. "Now you got me lost in emotion/Now you got me intoxicated with your drug/Bloodstream racin', heartbeat pulsin'/The truth of it is I'm in love with you, oh", she sings like she did last week at Coachella. Leaving you fiending for her own solo work like Finneas as McKenzie muses, "Now I'm in my feels/Way up in the clouds somewhere now/Don't know what's real, real/I'm lost, gone missin'/I don't even know if I'm here now/But I'm in my feels, feels."

Really feeling it lyrically and sonically we are so glad this postponed album that was meant to be October's very own is finally here like the step of a Spring, coming like the Summer sun. And it's here to stay in your Spotify streams as one of the best albums you'll hear this year in an already accomplished 2023 when it comes to the first quarter highlights. A shade under a half-hour (28 minutes for the 28th of April), but all power in its runtime, this Colombia record with a Cyberpunk feel to its album artwork is what Timothy describes as "sci-fi love songs for (his) beloved", the science to this cult favourite is as real as it gets, no fiction. It's 'Everything' like another Coleman co-write. 'Covering' all bases like, "My candlelight/Burnin' up like Palo Santo through the night/You, you're by my side/Feelin' like my four-leaf clover every time." 

This is love in the future from another legend with the roses. 'A Turn Of Events' and a firm home in Labrinth's new, more mature signature sound. '100 Miles An Hour' to the title track closer. The 'Power Couple' record is the new anthem all Jay and Bey's will sing along too, no matter who you call beau. But it's the 'Only Way Is Up' affirmation that gives you hope you can love like this too. You deserve it. We all do. One day. Or one way or another (you're going to find it). "There is no earth left here to dig/Layin' at the bottom of the pit tonight/Rememberin' when we were queens and kings and emperors/Now they're wonderin' how the f### we both made it out alive/But you know the stones don't, they don't bleed (Bleed)/And you know the zombies, they don't breathe (Breathe)/And you know that you and me are concrete (—Crete)/Nothing else that we need", Labrinth emotes on devotes. On the surface, these 'Ends & Begins' feel like a relationship record from rise to fall. But this is no break-up ballad for the fallen soldiers. More an ode to the ones that are with you when you begin again. All the way to the ends that justify what all this means. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'The Feels (Feat. Zendaya),' 'Never Felt So Alone' (Feat. Billie Eilish), 'Power Couple'.