If poetry is economy of expression, welcome our new chancellor Sophie May. Her first single, With the Band, tells a savage tale of teenage romance brilliantly, with scalpel-sharp lines such as: “Waking up in T-shirts from the band/ Oh, I let him put his cigarette out on my hand” with disorientating dispassion. The 23-year-old Londoner’s melodic, muscular folk pop is powered by lyrics that are unsettling, witty and grippingly real, like pages ripped from a diary.
May learned piano and poetry writing at school despite her dyslexia, then taught herself guitar while working in a pub, and began writing songs to play at open mic nights. Uploading snippets of songs to TikTok during lockdown changed the game. Her sparkling talent (and the app’s all-powerful algorithm) quickly brought a Billie Eilish endorsement and more than 200,000 followers.
Now, May is an increasingly confident, charming solo stage presence who has put out one excellent EP (You Do Not Have to Be Good, named after the opening line of Mary Oliver’s poem Wild Geese) and is writing a second. So far, the singer has tapped into the thoughts that obsessively buzz around her brain. “I have intrusive thoughts, OCD,” she laughs. “If you say them out loud, or sing them, you take away their power.” Fortunately, nothing can detract from the power of May’s songs and killer couplets such as: “Maybe she’s in love with him/ That or methamphetamine”.
You Do Not Have to Be Good is out now on Psychic Music. Sophie May plays EartH, London N16 on 28 November
