Just Cosmo - Cosmo Pyke (Analysis/Review)
Just Cosmo is the first official EP from indie artist Cosmo Pyke, and his vocals and guitar work alone are enough to move you.
This song is pretty self-explanatory due to the title. Cosmo doesn’t want the person to leave at times, but overall just wishes she wasn’t there. The line “I once did love. But now I’m feeling opposite, like red does blue” showcases this, as he is still sort of hanging on to certain feelings about her, but is trying to move on. It seems to have always been a broken relationship, and really just wants her to leave. Throughout the song, he’s slowly getting more desperate for her to leave (”I wish you were gone, so fucking bad”). The repetition of “I wish you were gone” drives his point in more and more.
Chronic Sunshine begins with Cosmo talking about his confusion over a girl. She seems to want something that he has, which is more than likely drugs (”paraphernalia and contraband”). The line “Chronic sunshines forever” is ironic, as we know he lives in the UK, and they tend to get more rain than sun. Everything is just repeating, shown in the lines “it’s an ongoing circle” and “vicious repetition.” The ending rap warps up the song pretty well. It discusses his graffiti art, and how he constantly has to run from police in order to pursue his art. It’s his passion, but is legally not allowed.
Cosmo talks about someone who has seemed to be sheltered all their life in this song. He doesn’t want to get involved in the whole ordeal, but also doesn’t want them to get hurt, almost playing into their further sheltering. He tries to exhibit something not far from tough love, but can’t fully bring himself to do it. So instead he seems to almost blame their school environment, which could be a comment on P.C. culture in education today. The single guitar in the two verses transitioning into the bass and drums for the rest of the song, gives the song greater production value, and makes it sound that much better.
The slowness of the beginning of the song works well with many of the themes discussed in this song. Cosmo talks about being bored and depressed because of an ex-girlfriend. He talks about how social media can skew relationships, and how it can make having one or keeping it healthy difficult. There’s also one point where it seems as though either he or his lover may have cheated during the relationship. He feels useless, with the boredom making him think more, making things even worse, especially as his ex found someone else. The distortion/slowing down of the third chorus cements many of the sad emotions felt in both the chorus, track and even EP.
The length of this track makes it a little intimidating at first (eight minutes), but it all works really well for the closing track. The sample in the beginning with the slow guitar makes for a really good intro. Cosmo talks about how because his lover is there, he hasn’t been taking as good care of himself. He lies, saying he want to stay with her when he doesn't, making things much more awkward. He slowly begins to stop caring overall, and just wants to move on. At the same time though, he kind of does want to stay with her, as he would rather be in an unhealthy relationship though have to be alone. The synths paired with rap gives off a great closing track sound. He talks about how girls are constantly trying to impress with fakes, and how he prefers more natural girls. He then goes how to mention how he hates the thought of her with another man. The second sample leads off the song into more synths and Cosmo’s questions, closing off the album really well.
Cosmo has gone on record to say how this EP is a reflection of a lot of his daily life specifically when he was younger). His deeper vocals mixes really well with the lighter chilled out guitar and bass instrumentals. This paired with his slower emotional yet happy sounding lyrics makes for a great first release, and I can’t wait to see where he continues to go.