Long-awaited by an army of loyal fans, the London based star delivers a ballad of parental defiance on her latest single.

As lockdown swept across the nation, singer-songwriter Sophie May took to TikTok to upload snippets of songs and melodies she had recently composed and unsurprisingly gained a lot of attention as a result. It’s easy to see why, for anybody familiar with her work, personal lyricism delivered with emotive vocal performances ride smoothly over acoustic melodies that ooze warmth with every chord strum. 

Her new single Bad Man is certainly no exception to her usual winning formula, carried along by whimsical acoustic chords and subtle percussion, the instrumentation works as the perfect canvas for May’s outstanding vocal performance. Emotive and personable, it’s very hard not to relate when May’s singing, delivering lyrics with just the right levels of confidence and vulnerability. In this sense, I would compare her to artists such as Billie Eilish (who also happens to be a fan of her work) but with a folksier inflexion.

The narrative of the song is also something I’m sure many of us can relate to as May goes against her parent’s better judgement to sneak out to see an unnamed ‘bad man’. May’s feelings towards this man seem to develop from indifference to infatuation as the track progresses. For instance, in the beginning, May reflects: “He treats me like a star, I treat him like a fan” which is completely turned on its head by the end of the track when she admits that this bad man has “Got me wrapped around his finger / Like a snake in its hiding place”. It’s personal storytelling like this that has attracted so many dedicated fans in such a short time — also the pristine song production doesn’t hurt.

Sophie May continues to shine, exemplifying all of the best traits of what made her so remarkable on this new single.