The business half of the music business proves to be a rich seam of inspiration for Labrinth on his fourth studio album, COSMIC OPERA ACT I, which opens with a short, spoken-word intro, “Something Like an Opera”—a statement that lends an artistic frame to his continued rumination on the subject. The polymathic songwriter/producer has dug into this topic before—on 2019’s Imagination & the Misfit Kid—but here, the angle has changed from cautionary tale to catalyst for evolution. The “internal dance” he refers to in that first minute turns out to be a tango—a tango, he makes clear, takes two. Opposing forces, then, are a central theme. Whether it’s “Debris,” in which Labrinth presents himself as the centerpiece in a ruinous scene, or “S.W.M.F.” a sci-fi ego drive bookended by cinematic orchestral stylings, the desire to rectify the imbalance between artistic instinct and commercial drive is a constant source of tension. The complex trap of stardom is exposed in clearest detail on “Orchestra,” a commanding arrangement of galloping drums, atmospheric strings, and bursts of brass to punctuate the sarcastic note of his delivery. As the record closes out on “Running a Red,” a woozy, bluesy jazz number that finds Labrinth seemingly sleepwalking his way back through the perils and pitfalls he has just escaped from, it’s hard not to feel cheated out of a happy ending for the hero in this futuristic epic. Keep in mind, that this is COSMIC OPERA ACT I—show’s not over yet.