Switched on Pop - Modern Classics: Labrinth's "Sexy MF" (with Sam Sanders)

Episode Date: July 6, 2021

Modern Classics is the new series where Charlie and Nate invite their favorite musicians, journalists, and friends of the show to wax lyrical about a song that's important in their life. In the first installment of Modern Classics, Nate and Charlie sit down with the host of NPR’s hit news and culture program It’s Been a Minute, Sam Sanders. Sam is one of the best people to talk music with, not only because he has his finger on the pulse of what’s happening in the entertainment world, but because as a former music major he’s got knowledge for days. That knowledge makes Sam the perfect person to explain why Labrinth’s 2019 track “Sexy MF” might be one of the hidden gems of contemporary pop, a song that he hears as “fun and fantastical with all these wonderful tricks and bells and whistles.” Nate and Charlie had never heard “Sexy MF” before Sam brought it to them, and were immediately hooked by the song’s copious ear candy: sly references to Prince and James Brown, death-defying vocal harmonies, all scaffolded atop an indomitable piano groove. Labrinth, aka Timothy Lee McKenzie, is a U.K. singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer who released his first single in 2010. Since then he’s gone on to compose the score for the hit TV show Euphoria, collaborated with Sia and Diplo as L.S.D., and worked with Beyoncé on the live-action Lion King soundtrack. Labrinth has racked up massive streaming numbers with tracks like “Jealous” and “Thunderclouds,” but “Sexy MF” is more of what one might call a “deep cut.” If you haven’t heard it yet, like Sam, you might find that it’s one you’ll play “perhaps a thousand times” after your first listen. Songs discussed Labrinth - Sexy MF, Still Don’t Know my Name, Mount Everest, Misbehaving Prince - Sexy M.F. James Brown - Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine) Lauryn Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing) Paul Anka - Put Your Head on my Shoulder Beach Boys - God Only Knows Harry Nilsson - Gotta Get Up Foreigner - Cold As Ice Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg - Still D.R.E. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switchshop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. And I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. And this is the first installment of modern classics, where we speak to our favorite musicians, journalists and friends of the show about a song that's important in their life and in the world. And today's guest is the host of It's Been a Minute for NPR

and our favorite former music and Pollyside double major Sam Sanders, welcome back to the show. Thank you all for having me. And I got to say, it's so nice to be in y'all's actual home studio with these wonderful views of, like, East L.A. It's great to be here. A good vibe. It's so nice. The vibe is intimate.

Zora the dog is just having the time of her life. Speaking of which, Sam, what song have you brought for us? So I would have brought 10 of his songs, but I brought my favorite one. It is a song by this artist named Labyrinth, L-A-B-R-I-N-T-H. And the song was called Sexy M-F, and you know what M-F stands for. And I think this is probably one of the most well-crafted pop songs I've heard in several years. On top of it, just being like a really well-written song that is sung well, there are all these little secrets and surprises that pop up before you know it.

It's like bespoke, maximalist power pop. When you told us you wanted to talk about Labyrinth, I looked into his background. Labyrinth's real name is Timothy Lee McKenzie. He was born in the UK and released his first single in 2010. Since then, Labyrinth has collaborated with Sia and Diplo as ever. LSD, Labyrinth, Tia Diplo, and worked with Beyonce on the live action Lion King soundtrack. But sexy MF is not his biggest song. So it's pretty cool that you brought us this particular track to dig into.

We should start with your personal connection to this song. Yeah, so I discovered Labyrinth through Euphoria. He did the music for HBO's Euphoria, which was, was Zendaya's breakout prestige TV show. And that was like dark, druggy, like industrial trip hop. Super brooding. Yeah, yeah. And also loved it.

But I wanted to find more of his music. And I discovered this album. And it's like the exact opposite. It's called Imagination and the Misfit Kid. It is like pop music to animate. like children's fables. It's just like fun and fantastical and like all these wonderful tricks and bibles and whistles happening. And this song, a sexy MF is one that I've played perhaps a thousand times since I've heard it first. And I don't know. That's how I found him. I think that

like now that I found him, I just find myself playing his music once a week because it's really, I think, rewarding to find a musician who is that virtuosic, making pot. that accessible too, if that makes sense? Yeah. Like, he could be making songs that are really, really hard for the average person to understand, but you hear this song, your grandmother gets it, your kid gets it, everybody gets it. As you say, there's a lot going on here. There's a lot of what we've been calling ear candy.

Yes. Here. Yes. Should we unwrap it? Let's do it. Let's go through and maybe pinpoint some of those moments that really capture our imagination. Even the way it comes in, it's great. Yeah.

Even that, ooh, you're a pretty little thing like, hey, what the fuck was the thinking drink? Got me getting a little head of myself. Even that, ooh, the whole song, he's got this chorus of labyrinths, providing these wonderful pops of, like, counterpoint. And it's like, the song would have been fine with just him singing the verse and the chorus, but there's this little, like, choir of nymphs behind him. surprising you like every other stanza. I love it.

Even in just that little piece of music, I feel like I got at least four pieces of ear candy. Like we had, I mean, the opening Game Boy. Yeah, like, what was that? Yeah, yeah. We have the little drink when we get the clink of the glass. Yes, yes. We had the choruses.

And then, of course, yeah, this is the funniest thing about the song, is that it's a song called Sexy MF and it's totally clean. ways of covering up voice that there's going to be curse. Every time. Yeah. But each one of those, they happen so frequently.

Yes. That it feels like I just keep getting pulled in asking exactly what you ask. Like, what was that? What was that? What was that? Yeah. And I think that only works

because like the groove that underpins it is so accessible. It is so direct and just boom, pop, boom, pop. And the piano just like, boop, boop, boop. Like, it just grounds you, you know, so all the other stuff can work.

Yeah. Okay, I like that. That groove is like the scaffolding on top of which are all these shiny bubbles and trinkets. Okay, that wasn't my greatest metaphor. It'll work. It'll work. I want to go to another moment of those nymph-like background vocals. Yes.

It's right after he sings the great phrase dilly-dallying. there's this like vocal cascade is the only way I know how to describe it. We play that again. It's so good. I would love for Labyrinth to spend four minutes just there. Yeah. And he's like, you get four seconds. You get four seconds of that.

You're welcome. That's what good musicians do. Yeah. The thing you want more of, they deny you. Yes. I think we are, all of our eyes lit up at 126 when Labyrinth said, All right, I'm ready for a verse. Let's hear that again.

That drum fill, it just fills you up for like two seconds. Yeah. This is reminiscent to me of like James Brown saying, let's take it to the bridge. Yeah. It's someone who has total command of their artistry, right? And it's like in control. But it's kind of fun too because James Brown. was directing a band and saying like literally let's take it to the bridge and here

Labyrinth is doing all the instrumentation probably. Exactly. He's doing all the instruments, all the vocals. So he's telling himself to go to the verse. You're like, yeah, yes, sir. I'll follow. I will follow you following yourself to the next verse. That'll be great. You want more? Of course. More ear candy? Okay. This is a truly heart-stopping moment. We've heard this chorus phrase before God made a masterpiece, but the second time through something, completely unexpected happens. Yes. Sxy mother.

God made a masterpiece. Every time I think the stereo broke. Yeah. I'm like, what happened to my music? And then he brings it back. I almost want that moment to hang there forever. Uh-huh.

But you do expect, it seems like we're all really cute into the sort of choiry qualities that he has. You almost want the chorus to just reverb out in a cathedral forever. But he just cuts it off. And you're down to silence. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Just a piece. Let's unwrap one more piece of ear candy. It's the lead in to the final chorus. When we get something that is, again, totally unexpected, kind of shocking. But also totally fits seamlessly into the flow of the song. it's these kind of stabbing funk guitars that we gave me Prince vibes

yes that we've never we've never heard them in the song until now we'll never hear them again yeah and the way that his drum tracking keeps up with all of this like the drums are like working with that like really quick stab of like guitar I don't know it's just like how much time did he spend just on those three seconds could be an afternoon yeah totally let's talk about Prince for a second yes because I hear an omit to Prince and those guitars. Even the name of the song.

And the name of the song. Yes. This is like the elephant in the room. Yeah. This is not the first song we've heard called Sexy MF. Uh-huh. 1992, Prince and the New Power Generation release a song with the exact same title. And guess what?

It still slaps. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You sexy motherfucker. We're all alone in a villa of Riviere. Got some friends on the south side in case you cared. Out of all of your friends, I won't be the closest. Prince rapping.

So great. So dated. So fun. So yeah, we hear those. I mean, they're not the exact guitars, but they're like in that Prince world. We've actually talked about this in the past. Like Prince has this very particular way of playing rhythm guitar. He's like, he called it chicken grease.

Yeah. And DiAngelo references that later on Vooda. This very specific way of playing a minor ninth chord. We hear it here. And, you know, it's interesting because last. Aberrenth is very clean on this recording. He never actually says the word MF. Yeah.

Nor do we. It's like motherer. Yes, yes, yes. But on this original 1992 Prince track, he does say it, and he was censored for it. Oh, wow. Some radio stations refused to play it. Others would fade down the volume, and any time that part came along, his record label asked him to release a clean version he refused to really so i don't know i mean who knows if

this is deliberate on labyrinth's part but it's almost like like he knows i wonder well it's also interesting at a certain point prince stopped playing that song as well oh he is so later in his career when he really leaned into being jehovah's witness and live performances he would just do the clean stuff and i think he hadn't performed that song for years in public before he died i mean I can't help but hear Labyrinth paying homage to Prince. And the fact that Labyrinth plays all of the instruments on this track, which is something Prince was known to do in the studio as well. And the fact that, you know, we were talking about Labyrinth as an artist

who's both experimental and accessible. Yeah. I think that also really applies to Prince. Oh my God, yeah. So the more kind of layers I start to unpack with this title, sexy MF and these musical references like those subtle guitars, the more I hear, like maybe Prince occupies a special place in the sort of musical pantheon of Labyrinth. I don't know for sure, but that's the sense I'm getting. Labyrinth call us, let us know. We want to talk to you.

There's also something about doing a song called SexyMF. It's a clean song. All of the sexiness, I think, comes from the confidence that we get in his vocal delivery, in those choices. of saying, I'm just going to take it to the verse. I'm just going to say, this is a masterpiece and give you silence. He's flexing. Yes. It is sexy. It's very, very sexy musically to have that kind of confidence

with this kind of song. I'm so into it. What's cool, too, is you hear this confidence throughout the album, Imagination and the Misfit Kid. Take another track like Mount Everest. Oh, yeah. Mount Everest.

What a way to start a shit on me. What a way to start a song. And this also was in euphoria in one of the episodes. When Zendaya is like strung out on God knows what. Silence again. Right? You ain't got shit on me. Because I'm on top of the above.

I'm on top of the above. Oh, my. My favorite moment of confidence on the album, save for this song, sexy MF. On the song, Misbehaving, you got to hear how it just changes. Ladies and gentle. Ladies and gentle. Ladies and gentle. Ladies and gentle.

Another moment that almost sounds like a glitch. Yes. But then you're like, oh, no. Oh, no, he meant to do this. It's very James Brown. So James Brown. You mentioning James Brown, it's so that. It is like one song and then around two minutes in, he makes it an entirely different song.

You're like, okay, great, man. Great. Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for. What? Wait for it. How do you do that? And this bass is about to walk real funky-like. And then just as you're getting into it, he's like, okay, that's all.

And you know what? Hearing this back again, I said earlier he's making power pop. He's making power funk. That's what it is. Bonkers. I have to collect myself. Wasn't that just like mind-blowing? Wow.

It is bespoke power funk. That's what I'm going to call him. It feels like somebody took down the dictionary of pop music had mastered it, doesn't care what page they're drawing from, like three seconds you get like a 90s R&B thing just for a second in the keys

and then like, oh no, we're going to... And now we're going there. And it all works. And I think particularly what surprises me about it is like, I feel there's a lot of people who try to update some kind of like soul or R&B sound by throwing contemporary drum production on it.

Yes. Right? Especially when you're doing like soul kind of thing. And I'm thinking like the like Megan Trainer style way of doing it. Yeah. I mean there's all kinds of ways that maybe it doesn't translate but just the sonics and the production it doesn't feel gimmicky. No. Like it actually

does blend. Yes. And it doesn't feel it doesn't feel too time specific. It doesn't feel like this is going to sound dated five years from now. It's probably not. It's probably going to sound really fresh. I don't know. It's something magical there. Something magical. Maria, you have a podcast now and you need to start acting like it.

What's the first step as a podcaster? Well, you have to ask lots of questions. I'm Maria Sharpova and I'm hosting a new podcast called Pretty Tough. Every week, I'm sitting down with trailblazing women at the top of their game to discuss ambition, work ethic, and the ups and downs that come on the path to achieving greatness. I have a few pretty tough questions for you. Okay. Ready? Ready? Do not sugarcoat something for me. No, no. No. We'll dive into their stories and get valuable insights from top executives,

actors, entrepreneurs, and other individuals who have inspired me so much in my own journey. Pretty tough is your front row seat to the women who have demonstrated the power in being unapologetic in their pursuits. I hope you'll join us. New episodes drop Wednesdays on YouTube or in your favorite podcast app. We were talking about the spinal chord of this song, SexyMF, being that piano line. Yes. Which is so simple.

It's just eighth note, triads over and over, again, a three-cord loop. And like the major first kicks it off. It was like, oh, I know this. I feel this. This is familiar. Exactly.

A major, C-sharp minor, E-major, on repeat from beginning. beginning to end. It almost doesn't make any sense that something so simple can be so compelling. Yeah. This just steady piano chord over and over again accompaniment. I clearly don't have the right language to articulate it. So I thought we could enlist the help of Miss Lauren Hill.

And let's just call this piano pattern that thing. Oh. Parentheses, duop. Uh-huh. The most de cane, yo. It feels vaguely 60s R&B, but it's more than that because it happens all the time everywhere, but it is, yeah. It happens all the time everywhere. It's crazy.

I think you could find this piano thing in every decade of popular music. Yeah. Let's go back to Paul Anka, 1959. Did not expect Paul Anka. Put your head on my shoulder, which I know the kids are listening to on TikTok right now. Okay. And we're going to hear that same da-da-da-da-da-da-d-d-d-d-d-pian. No, a compliment.

Put your head on my show. That's what Lauren Hill is talking about, right? Back when they used to sing with those thick harmonies. But as we move forward in time, we find it over and over again. 1960s, how about the Beach Boys, God Only Knows? 1970s, Harry Nielsen, got to get up. What's the show? What's the Netflix show where they play this all the time?

Russian doll. Yes. So good. 1980s? Don't worry. We just have three more decades. I'm fine with it. I love it all. Foreigner, cold as ice. The way that you're swinging all these longs together, I'm really into it.

1990s, Dr. Dre and Snoop still Dre. And 2000s, maybe Grizzly Bears, two weeks. As I call it, the Volkswagen commercial song. It's the Volkswagen commercial song. And you know what? Good for them. get that yet. It's always comforting because you're hearing the chord over and over so you never get lost.

You're like, oh, I hear it. Yeah, I love that, Sam. Let's bring it back to SexyMF for a second. I think you nailed it. I think there's something that's so grounding about those piano chords just going from beginning to end of every one of these songs that allows these artists to like fill up the rest of the track. With all of these surprising things, syncopations, timbers you don't expect, formal divergences.

Yeah. It's like with that piano just chugging along through the entirety of the song, it gives you a lot of liberty to experiment in all these other musical realms. Yeah. Yeah. So my takeaway from this is that

if you want to have a pop song and you want to just kind of go nuts and go wild and try out your trick bag of ear candy. Yeah. Just lay down a... Get those chords down. Lay down an eighth note piano groove.

And just, and anything goes. Go to town. Because the piano just holds your hand while the other stuff can do everything else around it. Yeah. One of the things we've been thinking about in this modern classic series is about the way in which a song which or an artist who might be entirely contemporary is either saying something about music writ large and is in that conversation

or might even be influencing it. I'm wondering, are there ways? that you're hearing labyrinths sound move out into the rest of pop music i think it is this wonderful playfulness that doesn't ascribe itself to genre specifically so like there's a lot of funk and our me going on with this album but there's also a bunch of pop happening and the stuff that he did in the group lSD that's even poppier you know and i think that like he is this artist who's represents kind of, I don't know, the way that like all of Gen Z just is. They don't care about genre anymore. They're like, is it a group? Do I like it? Like, is this a good song? I also think

that like he is doing a thing that I think is hard because the song itself and like this kind of bucks a trend but it's part of a trend. The song itself is less than three minutes long. It's just a three minutes long. And we've talked about pop songs getting shorter because of a lot of different factors. And usually when the song gets shorter, you lose parts of the song. You lose chorus. You lose verse. You lose whatever. He still manages to give you a fully formed song in like two minutes and 54 seconds. And it's lovely because it harkens back to like the way songs used to feel maybe 15 years ago, but it's still the same length that all these new songs are today. He just feels very much aware of like how he fits, where he fits, and is like comfortable.

It is classic and modern at the same time. And I know that's so cliche, but I really believe it about this guy. It's very, I think for that reason, it's very repeatable. I didn't realize that my Spotify account had that setting where it immediately replays the track after you listen to it. I actually listen to this track. three times in a row before I realized that it had restarted twice because I was just enjoying it so much and it just was it's all so seamless this is interesting because when we listen to this

together for the first time my statement to you was wow it just kind of does one thing and you're like that's I was really I was really offended when you said that I was deeply disgruntled there's a lot of things but I think to Sam to your point about this about sort of the age genre, like, is this just a groove? This song is just a groove that sustains you. Yeah. Not just for three minutes, but on loop three times. And you keep wanting to go back more.

And so I think, like, it has a steadiness. It has that confidence. Uh-huh. But within it are all these magical little moments that keep you wanting more. Yeah. Yeah. Can I tell you one more thing? That's my favorite part.

Yeah. The last chorus, he's providing this really interesting counterpoint where it's like him singing against the chorus that is like one note that then escalates to a higher note and it's really simple when you think about it but hearing it, it's just magical. It's just magical.

Okay, we need to listen to that right now. So he's like here. Just hanging out on the fifth. Oh, yeah. And it's gonna just kick up a notch. Now it's the root. Yes. Yeah.

It's like he's egging himself on for that last chorus. It's like labyrinth singing to labyrinth being like, go, go, go, keep going, yeah, yeah. And every time I hear it, it's all of two or three notes, right? But it's just, it's amazing. Yeah. There's a note that I do not have. I will never have. It's completely inaccessible.

That is so high. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yet another one of the treasures in this song. This Labyrinth deep cut, I think I can speak for both try and myself, has turned us on to an artist that was on our radar, but we had never really listened deeply to.

Sam, thank you for bringing this track to us. I guarantee we're going to be listening to it nonstop for the rest of our days. Thank you for bringing this to us. I'm honored to be here in Labyrinth, any of us, all of us. Would love to speak with you about your music if you're listening. We're waiting. There's an empty chair. That really is.

Literally, unless Zora grabs it. Switched on Pop is produced by me, Nate Sloan, and he, Charlie Harding. We're edited by Jolie Myers. Brandon McFarland is our engineer, illustrations by Iris Gottlieb, and social media by Abby Barr. We're proud members of the Vox Media Podcast Network and Vulture, and our executive producers are Hana Rosen and Nashat Kurwa. Big thanks to JBL, who are supporting us to making all these exciting miniseries

and providing us with the gear we need to travel around the country, making them as we visit friends and family. You can find more episodes of Switched-on-Pop anywhere you get podcasts. We're talking Apple Podcasts. We're talking Spotify. We're talking Overcast. We're talking Google Podcast app.

We're talking apps I probably never even heard of. But there's always our website, www.switchedonpop.com. to tune in next week when we will release a brand new episode on a topic that has been most requested by our listeners out there. It's good for you, Olivia Rodriguez. We're going to break down this song with help of a very special guest. Until then, it only remains for me to say thank you for listening. Attention Spotify. Has arrived on the new Good Girl Jasmine Absolute of Carolina Herrera,

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