Album Review: LSD - Labrinth, Sia & Diplo Present... LSD
The formation of a group like LSD is certainly an oddity in 2019, where more and more solo artists are dominating the top of the charts, unaccompanied on the mic save for the occasional feature or two and enlisting a variety of producers to compose their art. Whether or not there is room for a collaboration between English producer Labrinth, Australian singer Sia, and American producer Diplo in the mainstream is unclear as of yet (especially since their main purpose so far has been providing background noise for commercial à la Imagine Dragons). Thankfully, their debut album does prove the talented trio has a bit more to offer listeners, though even given the record's short runtime, there are ample examples of the limitations of their style.
After a disjointed and thoroughly unnecessary intro, the record gets off to a relatively strong start; though Angel in Your Eyes lacks a particularly compelling chorus, Sia's charming vocal quirks help spruce up what is ultimately a lyrically sparse track. The following cut Genius is the album's clear highlight, however, with the booming percussion and regal strings accentuating the playful narcissism of Sia declaring "I got everything you need". Labrinth and Diplo pop up occasionally in the background as if to remind the listener of the presence of royalty, the former pompously declaring "Only a genius could love a woman like she". The remix featuring Lil Wayne which closes the album is similarly superb, the rapper proving his worth with dexterous technique and eloquent lines like "I'm a genius and perfectionist, specialist in the excesses/With excellence for evidence, necklaces for irrelevance".
When the three industry veterans play to their strengths, the results are quite catchy and creative, albeit still hampered by the self-imposed restrictions of artists too afraid to truly leap outside their comfort zone. The album's main hindrance, however, is Labrinth's inability to keep his painfully mediocre singing off these tracks, appearing alongside (or, even worse, in lieu of) Sia's blatantly superior vocal talents. Occasionally, as on Heaven Can Wait, he finds a more relaxed groove in which his smooth, refined crooning actually enhances the track, but his reluctance to defer to the Australian singer-songwriter's more accomplished voice is unfortunate.
On top of LSD's aforementioned vocal handicap, that not every cut present is entirely interesting. Mountains and No New Friends are perhaps the two most apparent confluences of all the group's flaws: verses dominated by Labrinth, painfully generic lyricism, and a chorus of unremarkable EDM noise that it ceases to simply exist inoffensively, and ascends into the realm of irritating. Comparably amateurish production plagues Audio, with the chiptune vocals and embarrassingly basic 808 hi-hats leaving Diplo's unnecessary interjections as, surprisingly, not the worst part of the track.
Considering the history all three members of the group have in producing mediocre mainstream pop, that some of LSD's songs actually escape the realm of mediocrity is an achievement in itself. Sia, for as talented as she obviously is as a singer and songwriter, does not have the most pristine track record of working with producers who create at her level, and both Labrinth and Diplo cannot help but display their limits all over this album. As a one-off experiment, the record is somewhat enjoyable while simultaneously not overstaying its welcome; still, it's hard to imagine much more fresh material coming from such a questionable partnership.
5/10
Favourite Tracks: Angel in Your Eyes, Genius, Heaven Can Wait
https://open.spotify.com/album/0ujHQ5WCLuKJQXOqXpGtpf