TRACK REVIEW: Cosial – Michael’s Song

Up and coming artist Cosial’s new single opens with a ticking rhythm and buttery vocals, not unlike Taylor Swift’s early stuff. What makes this different from the romance-narrative style is the confessional/first person form of the lyric which recalls the bedroom pop genre.

The song never peaks aggressively; it ends abruptly giving us as listeners a sense of its transience. There is a temporariness emanating from the track; in a mix of teen longing and the cynicism of a young adult the song takes its position between the categories of adulthood and teenagehood. In the end, I am convinced by the visceral references to a heart “rough as leather” which allows immaturity and maturity to coexist uncannily in the ethereal, dislocated space of bedroom pop.