Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid.
Shakespeare said it first in Twelfth Night. Then Agatha Christie’s Sad Cypress was published in 1940. And now, in 2026, Sad Cypress is a Cardiff-based solo artist who has been compared to Cat Power, PJ Harvey, and Kate Bush. Her double A-sided single ’Sirens’ /’It Means A Lot To Me’ comes from her Princess of Cups EP, which will physically be released later this year.
Of ‘Sirens’, Sad Cypress says it’s “an inversion of the usual mythology – rather than drawing unwitting sailors to their deaths, these sirens don’t want any distractions… what it is they are doing is more interesting”. The song lasts less than a minute, but it’s long enough to capture the aloofness of heavenly sirens musing above a pitifully terrestrial landscape. It begins with languid surf rock chords and then unfurls into a slowed down Mamas and Papas-like incantation.
Waves and distant birds can be heard behind the piano and vocals on ‘It Means A Lot To Me’. It thus has the aura of a special concert in Dylan Thomas’ bay-hugging writer’s abode, as well as the end of the pier grandeur of Radiohead’s ‘Life in a Glasshouse’.
This all bodes well for the EP. In the meantime, be in the audience for the Sad Cypress gig at the Phyliss Maud in Newport on 1st August. Interesting things are happening on the south coast of Wales, and you don’t need sirens to summon you.
Sirens / It Means A Lot To Me is out now on Bandcamp
Sad Cypress: Bandcamp | Instagram
Review by Neil Laurenson
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