A perfectly balanced blend of alt-country and pop, Sophie Cozine’s new song In Shadows is her first new music in two years. It starts softly and sparsely, with a solitary acoustic guitar, before being joined by her stunning vocal, which reminds us of many different talented women – from Emmylou to Jenny Lewis and from the Watson Twins to the Söderberg sisters.
The song builds in this way to around a minute in, when the guitar and voice are joined smoothly by the rest of the instruments, with the almost funky bass guitar contributing spectacularly. There is more than a touch of Conor Oberst in the songwriting here. It reminds us of his work with Phoebe Bridgers in Better Oblivion Community Centre. The song is instantaneous but also definitely a grower. The atmosphere that’s built up over the course of the song is both comforting and tense (“he held the cards, she rolled the dice” feels like it’s establishing a scene from a movie). The slide guitar and the organ work perfectly together, evoking images of dusty saloon bars filled with regular patrons and perspiring beer bottles – and the beautiful day that lies just outside the windows.
Sophie is also a clinical herbalist, which may go some way to explaining the soothing quality of In Shadows. With tracks like this, who needs herbs?!
Written by Kinda Grizzly
