‘Cocoon’ is the new single from Annie Booth and the first taste of forthcoming LP Lazybody, out in November. It’s built on a repeated piano phrase that acts like the river which Annie Booth’s voice floats on. It’s a voice that, at the low end can be warm and conversational but has the ability to rise up through the song on the buoyancy of the string arrangement. The lyrics (printed below) echo what a lot of us have felt over the various lockdowns: we have been wrapped up in our cocoons; part-protected and part-hidden in our own biosphere. The cabin fever that goes with this imposed isolation has led to our changing moods, hairstyles and weight or lost moments spent just staring at the wall, “Are you an answer or more dry rot?” as Booth sings.
Annie Booth may have folk roots, but the branches of this song are reaching out into a Carol King sky and, alongside a compelling tune, there are some outstanding touches in the arrangement, moments which make it sparkle, such as pops of wood block and electric piano and a glittering crescendo of ice-skating strings and layered harmonies.
‘Cocoon’ is an excellent herald for the forthcoming album and you can pre-order it here from Last Night From Glasgow Records ahead of its release on 19 November.
Annie Booth socials: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
COCOON – LYRICS
Do you want me to be clever
Do you want me to be cool
Do you want me to surrender
All my pearls to you
These days I’m changing hairstyles
Change my body, change my mood
I thought that I’d have emerged by now
But I’m still shifting around in my cocoon
I don’t mind
Till I mind
Blank walls staring at me
Let down by the interval
Are you an answer or more dry rot?
Do you want me to be clever
Do you want me to be kind
I don’t mind, I’m just a puppet on a live wire
I don’t lie
Not all the time
I’m trying to reconcile the parts I don’t quite understand
Or at least I would if I could leave my flat
It gets harder the older I get
You’d understand
Review by Paul F Cook
Keep up to date with all new content on Joyzine via our
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Mailing List