13. Mount Everest

 Mount Everest

Another short track for the album, “Mount Everest” packs enough of a punch to leave a lasting impression. Starting off with a just-out-of-your-comfort-zone syncopated beat prepares us for how this song is going to progress. The clap of the drum comes just slightly off-beat while the rest of the notes are on time. It feels as though they almost line back up, and then he changes it up so we can never be sure. But this is a small distraction from the soothing but profane melody and lyrics of the song. Mount Everest, the highest mountain above sea level, located in Asia (thanks Wikipedia), can be seen as symbolic of the biggest “thing” to overcome and Labrinth shoves it aside; “Mount Everest ain’t got shit on [him].” He takes the greatest, tallest mountain in the world and belittles it as if it’s no more than a large hill. He’s “on top of the world.”

An American classic, “Sitting on Top of the World,” originally by Mississippi Sheiks, holds the precedent for Labrinth’s “Mount Everest.” The blues song faces emotional hardship while remaining positive and looking at life as though the persona in the song is “...on top of the world.” This is evidently similar to Labrinth’s song, after coming up from hardship and struggle, feeling himself to be on top of the world.

A couple of lines after Mount Everest, Labrinth makes the same comparison and presents the same attitude towards the Burj Dubai, more commonly known as the Burj Khalifa. This is the tallest structure and building in the world. Labrinth takes a natural phenomenon and a man-made building, both of which are the tallest of their kind in the world, and says they are nothing more than he is, because again, he’s “on top of the world.” Why he chooses to refer to the structure as the Burj Dubai instead of the Burj Khalifa, which it’s gone by since 2010, I do not know or claim to understand besides perhaps for metrical and rhyming reasons. This line has an internal rhyme with the next, “You could touch the sky…” rhyming Dubai and sky. The internal rhyme breaks up the line slightly so it sits more comfortably with the average listener. A rhyme he uses in the second verse however comes as a more juvenile and somewhat cheap cop-out, rhyming “it” with “it.” Although, the rest of those lines make up for the lack of lyrical creativity there: “I burn down my house and build it up again/ I burn it down twice just for the fun of it.” He’s literally playing with fire, destroying just because he can.

The following line tells us how he is able to and why he is burning down his house. He’s got “so much money I don’t know what to do with it.” A house and material items mean nothing when you have an unimaginable amount of money. Everything material is replaceable. He can destroy his entire house twice and build it back up again, just to keep himself entertained. He speaks about not answering his phone because no one is worth his time anymore, while we hear a dial tone sound effect in the background of that lyric. Right after this effect we get the line, “I got me one gun and an alibi,” which has the sound of a gun being cocked, another effect added that really drives this lyric home. Nothing can stop him anymore, he has everything he could ever need. The last line in the verse points out how sad this life turns out to be, a life many dream of living. He has received so much love until now, but it’s starting to feel like a lie. This reminds me of the phrase “too much of a good thing.” He has reached a point where he cannot imagine what else he may do from here. He’s got all this money, all this power, and all this love, but now what? Where’s the substance in life? The love he receives is not intimate or personally emotional, it’s a more physical love given by people who do not truly know him. Whether this may be fans or temporary lovers, the love is not fulfilling.

The entire bridge of this song is Labrinth repeating “I don’t need nobody.” This seems rather insistent, maybe because of uncertainty. I’ve found that when someone is most uncertain about something they are trying to claim, they will be overly insistent on what they are trying to prove. Labrinth/his character in this song may be trying to prove that he is independent and doesn’t need the help of others. However, everyone needs help at some point in their lives, but he will continue to insist that he doesn’t need anyone.

This track has an odd eerie feel to it because of the lack of instruments for the entire first verse. There is a single drum keeping the most simple rhythm, and a piano playing one very low minor key also keeping the rhythm. Until the break after the first verse, there are virtually no accompanying instruments. The melody is also in a minor key which adds to this eerie feeling. There are many effects heard in the background of this track. You can make out what sounds like a xylophone, tumbling keys, explosions, deep staccato strings like a violin, and electronic effects altering a piano and vocals, as well as many others I’m sure Labrinth has added in final mixing. All of this comes together through digital mixing and a beat pad, countless tracks edited on sound mixing software culminating in a brooding track.