Sophie May shares new single ‘Brian Cox’ featuring its celebrated namesake
Taken from the singer-songwriter’s upcoming EP ‘Deep Sea Creatures’.
Photo: Nicole Ngai
Known for gently breaking hearts with her magnetic melodies and skilfully constructed couplets, it should really be no surprise that London singer-songwriter Sophie May’s latest single Brian Cox sees her dive into all things existential.
Named after and featuring the celebrated physicist himself, having been inspired by one of his talks about black holes, Brian Cox serves as an overwhelmingly beautiful contemplation on the expanse of the universe, not to mention the dread-inducing thought of the infinite cosmos.
Sophie’s ability to gather such abstract thoughts into a song that’s just under three minutes is a real songwriting feat, not just because it captures such a vast subject so completely, but also because it does so with such a delicate yet affecting touch.
Each chorus and verse cathartically encapsulates the foreboding weight of the universe in the most devastatingly gorgeous of ways: “Space is way too big / Rocket ships and drones make me feel sick / I don’t want to know about Goldilocks zones or / Dying blackholes where you never grow old / God, I hate the cosmos.”
And, although it’s still a hard concept to accept and come to terms with, Brian Cox’s spoken interlude above the track’s deceptively profound acoustic guitar strums acts as a powerful harbinger of hope, thanks to Cox’s lilting enthusiasm for his work and the ever-present reminder that these are mutual feelings, bringing the track to a more comforting end.
This means that, although Sophie May yet again devastates us in the nicest of ways, she also makes sure to console us so that we’ll listen time and time again.
Brian Cox is out now and will be featured on Sophie May’s upcoming EP Deep Sea Creatures, which is set for release on July 26th.