"Last Time" is a song by English musician

Labrinth Timothy Lee McKenzie (born 4 January 1989), better known by his stage name Labrinth, is an English singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer. After initially pursuing a career in music production, Simon Cowell signed him to his record labe ...

. Written by Labrinth and manager Marc Williams, it was released as the third

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

from the musician's debut album ''

Electronic Earth ''Electronic Earth'' is the debut studio album by English recording artist Labrinth released 2 April 2012, via Syco Music. The album peaked at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart. Background The album was released on 2 April 2012, by Simon Cowell' ...

'' on 16 March 2012.

Background

Before its release, "Last Time" was performed live by Labrinth on the

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been cod ...

Live tour in 2011. Labrinth revealed on Twitter that the song would be his third single, announcing on 25 January 2012: "My new single is called Last Time out on March 11th." The full track was premiered on UK radio on 30 January at 8:00

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

, and the song was later uploaded on Labrinth's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

account.

Style and composition

Labrinth claims that he was "gravitated" to the sound of "Last Time" by his love of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, and points out that song is influenced by European electronic artists such as

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...

and

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

, describing it as his "own perception" of their sounds. When revealing the song, the musician and producer claimed that it "shows another side to what I'm about", pointing out that "It's quite electronic, but when you really listen to the detail of the music, you can understand that it's really musical".

Critical reception

Lewis Corner of

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

described the song as "immaculately produced, slickly executed and ... fresh and fizzy".

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Last Time" was released on 24 February 2012, and was directed by

Colin Tilley Colin Tilley (born June 27, 1988) is an American filmmaker, music video director, and television commercial director. Tilley is the CEO and owner of Boy in the Castle Productions. He has directed more than 300 music videos. Tilley directed, pro ...

. The video has been described as "intergalactic", and features Labrinth "travelling the globe with a blue alien" and other phenomena. Labrinth said in the pre-video that he wanted to try a sci-fi video.

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control Labrinth songs 2012 singles Song recordings produced by Labrinth Music videos directed by Colin Tilley 2012 songs Syco Music singles Songs written by Labrinth