LSD - Labrinth, Sia and Diplo: Review
LSD
is a collaborative effort consisting of British singer and rapper Labrinth, Australian pop singer Sia and american producer and Major Lazer member Diplo. The collaboration was announced last year with a critically acclaimed lead single and after more than a year of singles, delays and remixes the full album has finally arrived with less momentum behind it than many initially expected.
Review By Lavender:
I had no idea what to do coming into this collaboration. Labrinth has never really impressed me with his work. I thought his solo album was just alright and most of his features and singles seem like nothing special. Sia on the other hand I'm still a very big fan of and she's consistently released loud and proud pop albums for the past decade that I enjoy like clockwork. Mixing this in with the even more volatile Diplo, who has to be one of the busiest guys in the music industry and has some soaring highs next to obnoxious lows in his discography.
Thankfully any questions I had about whether or not this collab could work were silenced straight away with the supergroups brilliant lead single and one of my favorite singles of last year Genius. The song features killer contributions from both Sia and Labrinth that trade off responsibilities as the song runs on. Similar format for the chorus which is an incredibly well written series of traded hooks between the two that makes the absolute most of Diplo's vibrant and glitzy instrumental. I also really enjoy the Lil Wayne remix of this song that was released as a single last year and is the closer to this very brief album.
The next single Audio wasn't quite as great. While both Labrinth and in particular Sia deliver some pretty great vocal performances, the production and songwriting could be a lot stronger here and by the end of it the song seems like it's been nothing but a boring trudge narrated by talented vocalists. Oddly enough like clockwork the next single was yet another fantastic tune with Thunderclouds. Diplo shines here with a heavy and impactful instrumental as well as some great post vocal work chopping up Sia's powerful refrain into a catchy hook that follows a brilliant bridge. The song is more proof that when two or more of the trio are working at their best the songs and killer. Finally there is Mountains one of the only moments where Labrinth shines, delivering an ice cold performance over Diplo's distant and chilling instrumental. The explosion the song has into a short but sweet hook is a good one and while I don't love every moment of Mountains, it is still a decent single that helped get me excited for LSD.
Unfortunately given that we've already talked about half of the record in just singles, most of the highlights are out of the way. One of the two songs I enjoyed a lot aside from the singles was the introductory track Welcome To The Wonderful World Of LSD. It's a zany, glitchy and wild tune that sets up the album to be a much more personal and experimental experience than it actually turns out to be, but it's an intro track I enjoy quite a bit. The other great new moment the album had to offer was Heaven Can Wait. Sia kills this track with a spacey and lowkey beat that she hits hard on her smooth verse. Unfortunately the shimmery chorus doesn't have nearly the attention that the verses do and it's simply an okay bridge between some great instrumentation and performances on both verses.
No New Friends is almost there as it really makes a decent tune out of everyone involved being just okay. It's a crystal clear and sugary sweet pop tune with some distracting harmonizing but one of the best hooks on the entire album. If they could carry that momentum into any other part of the song it could be much better.
The two songs that fall short in a big way are Angel In Your Eyes and It's Time. Angel has some smooth lead vocals to start off with but the busy passages of keys and percussion dancing in the background get very distracting as it transitions into a horrible hook that tends to kill all of the songs momentum. It's Time on the other hand is truly a disaster that gives off the impression it was rushed through the process just to make it on the album in time. The track is horribly underwritten and so lowkey of a ballad that it sounds like nobody even tried during its assembly.
Given the talent and status of these three big artists I would consider LSD to be both a commercial and critical failure. The trio seemed to take way to much time putting this project together after they announced it and the hype for it come release time is far less energetic than it was a year ago. But at the same time too many of these songs come off as unfinished or rushed tracks that have really simple solutions that could have made them much better, Despite this when the trio are operating at their best all at the same time it creates some of the sharpest and most compelling pop songs you'll hear all year, and there are plenty of points across LSD where all of their talents show. 6/10
Favorite Track: Genius
