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William White

Today I will be talking about how Labrinth, Sia and Diplo came together to create a

concept album that tells the story of a new relationship that ultimately ends in failure. Before we

start talking about their album however, I wanted to give a little bit of background on what a

concept album is.

Merriam Webster defines a concept album as “a collection of songs about a specific

theme or story.” They can be used to quite simply tell a story or they can be used to handle more

serious topics. The Mothers of Invention created the first ever concept album in 1966. Their

album Freak Out! was a satirical jab at the problems in the public school systems and pop

culture at the time. In his memoir, lead member Frank Zappa wrote, “It wasn’t as if we had a hit

single and we needed to build some filler around it. Each tune had a function within an overall

satirical concept.”1 Now my only question is whether it’s just a coincidence or not that a group

named The Mothers of Invention invented the concept album.

“Why don’t we all just make up some incredible alter egos and think, “Now how would

he sing it? How would he approach this track?” And it freed us. It was a very liberating thing to

do,” Paul McCartney said in an interview with the Rolling Stone about the album Sgt. Pepper’s

Lonely Hearts Club Band. This album was focused once again on the problems of pop culture at

the time, but also about the effects of psychedelic drugs.2

In The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, David Bowie went in a

different direction. Like the Beatles he adopted an alter ego, but with that alter ego, instead of

focusing on a current issue, he decided to use his album to tell a story. Shortly following the

1 Lily Doolin, The Evolution of the Concept Album, 2018.

2 Ibid.
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release of Bowie’s album, Pink Floyd released The Wall telling the story of a man named Pink

who rises to stardom and eventually builds a metaphorical wall separating himself from the rest

of the world.3

These were the first four concept albums and they really started a trend as after they were

all released they became very popular for a while. Some more modern examples include

American Idiot by Green Day, Hospice by The Antlers, good kid, m.A.A.d. city by Kendrick

Lamar, and 25 by Adele.

LSD by Labrinth, Sia and Diplo is a very current example of a concept album, having

been released in April of this year. Their album is based on the story of a new relationship that

ultimately ends in failure.

The first song, Welcome to the Wonderful World of, doesn’t contribute much to the story

except to hint that it’s going to be about love as one of the repeated lyrics is “I’m here on

Venus.” It serves more as an introduction to the album, and presenting the unique style created

by the three artists involved.

The next song, Angel in Your Eyes, focuses on the beginning of the relationship, with

lyrics like “I’ma be the one, baby. I’ma the the one who you let it,” it details the exciting start to

the relationship where they’re very much in the puppy dog phase where they’re just super

excited to be around each other.

In Genius they spend the song talking about how it takes a genius to love a woman like

her, and that he is a genius and is the only one who can really understand her and how they

believe that they are perfect for each other. One of the lyrics from the woman’s perspective is

“You’ll be my Einstein, my Newton, my Galileo, and my Hawking,” clearly stating that even

though she thinks she’s difficult to be with, he knows just what to do to make her happy.

3 Ibid.
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Audio is the couple just expressing how happy they are together. The rest of the world

doesn’t matter when they’re together because they have each other and they’re happy no matter

what. With lyrics like “You got the heart, we got the soul. Just when the world saying they got

no hope, here comes the love, we got audio,” it’s clear that they’re happy no matter what the

world is throwing at them because they love each other.

In the next song however, we get to our first rough patch in the relationship.

Thunderclouds tells the story of the couple getting nervous and paranoid that the other is going to

betray their trust. Lyrics such as “Hey now, put your hands in the air, I’ma go through your

stuff,” and “You’re asking me to stay, but I never met a girl/man I could trust” exemplifies the

paranoia that is being felt by both of them. And while they’re being accused they are saying

things to try and tell the other that they have nothing to worry about but it’s to no avail.

Luckily in the next song, Mountains, they are able to restore their trust in one another.

They express that they have made it through the rough patch by saying “What we gotta lose?

What we gotta move? I move mountains. I’d do anything for you, anything to move - move

mountains.” Clearly they’re happy again and their trust is strong enough once again to move

mountains.

No New Friends is similar in theme to Mountains. It talks about how they don’t need

anybody but each other to feel supported. “I got all I need in a world of doubt, we got our

champagne dreams in an endless drought. We are the kings and queens seeking our aces out. We

got all we need, no new friends now.”

In Heaven Can Wait we get to the next rough patch in the relationship. The rough patch

that we find out in the next song eventually leads to the end of the relationship. It talks about

how they can tell the end of the relationship is coming, but neither of them are ready to let go.
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They both want to do whatever they can to preserve it. Lyrics like “Tick-tock and I’m praying

for time. You’re my angel put my heart on rewind,” and “Yeah, I know it. Yeah, I know it now.

Time is runnin’, time is runnin’ out” clearly show that they know where the relationship is

headed, but they are reluctant for it to reach that end.

And then we get to It’s Time. I don’t feel like this song’s lyrics need any kind of

explanation as to how they indicate the relationship is over as when we get to the chorus it

becomes quite clear so instead, I’ll be talking about how they use the music to tell the story.

This song revolves primarily around around a VI-ii-I-IV, which is similar to, but not quite

the same as the axis progression of I-V-vi- IV, in that it contains almost all of the chords with the

exception of the V chord being replaced by ii, and it is in a different order. This progression does

a great job at setting a very somber tone for the piece which is appropriate given that it is talking

about the end of a relationship. After this progression cycles twice it is replaced by III-vi-V-I-IV-

V-I which is always used at the end of a phrase. This is an interesting progression because we

don’t normally see things like this and while most of the chords are major, some of the saddest

lyrics in the song are over this progression and it still sounds devastating. The form of the song

follows a normal pop song pattern of verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, and ending material.

The song opens with Sia singing a solo. Her lyrics talk about how there are just signs

everywhere that the relationship is over but as you will be able to hear, you can hardly tell what

she’s singing in some parts. Her diction is, at least in my interpretation, intentionally sloppy to

indicate the communication problems that the couple is experiencing. Almost like the other

person just can’t understand the viewpoint of the other person. (Play the beginning of the song).

Labrinth follows her with completely sound diction and you can clearly understand what

it is that he is trying to say. This to me shows that while the communication is rough, and that
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may be a foggy issue there are other problems with the relationship that stand out very plainly.

The chorus talks about how it’s clear that the other person doesn’t want to be in a relationship

anymore, so clearly it’s time to end things. In the repetition of the chorus, on the line “When you

don’t want me,” on the word “want” they swap a Bb minor chord for a Bb major chord to place

emphasis on the fact that he doesn’t feel wanted anymore in the relationship which isn’t the best

feeling to experience.

The chorus is followed by another verse that is also sung by Labrinth alone that follows

the same chordal structure as the rest of the piece for the first part. The normal progression

cycles and we get the same ending we got in the other spots, but instead of getting another

repetition of the whole cycle like we did in the beginning, we are instead given ii7-I-IV-iv giving

us another element of mixture. This mixture is given to us on the lyric “This doesn’t justify”

which is his way of saying that he’s done putting effort into the relationship and just wants it to

be over. After this we get another repetition of the chorus.

After that we get something different and quite interesting. They abandon words all together.

Until the end of the piece all the singing we hear is done with wordless melisma. In a paper by

Dr. Martin Blessinger and Dr. Christopher Endrinal they speak about how wordless melismas

can be used to convey emotion that can’t be expressed with words. Based on my understanding

of their research, the wordless melisma at the end of It’s Time is a conclusive melisma that is

used to convey the immense grief that both parties feel about the end of the relationship that they

had both been so happy in.4 This melismatic sequence is the official departure from the

relationship and the relationship concludes when they stop singing. Eventually both voices leave

and we’re left with just a piano that cycles through the normal progression and ends on a major I

4 Dr. Martin Blessinger, Dr. Christopher Endrinal, The Ahhs Have It: Wordless Melismas and the
Ineffable in Popular Music, 2019, 6.
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chord indicating that while the relationship is over and they’re upset about that, they’re happy to

have had and shared the experiences that they had together.

This is how Labrinth, Sia and Diplo were able to tell the story of a great relationship that

ultimately ended in failure in a great album.

And now it’s time for questions.