COSMO PYKE - LONDON, UK
Cosmo Pyke
at Electric Brixton in London, UK
by Brendan Sharp
Culminating his first European headline tour at a buzzing Electric Brixton and supporting his LP ‘Low’ released at the start of April, there is a feverish excitement in the crowd for Cosmo Pyke tonight.
Born and raised in nearby Peckham Southeast London, Cosmo attended The Brit School for Performing Arts, following in the footsteps of Adele, Amy Winehouse and Loyle Carner. Fusing elements of Blues, Jazz, Hip Hop and neo-soul, he has previously described his sound as “Spacey, beautiful and lazy”, both producing and writing his songs.
Photo by: Orson Oblowitz
In his distinctive and laid-back style, his melancholic, storytelling lyrics yearn in the set opener Railroad ‘Oh so in love it fucking sucks, Easy, not worry girl but beneath this dust (yeah) lies a teardrop for you’ layered upon a jaunty, frenetic drumbeat. The new song ‘Outlaw’ with its heartfelt lyric ‘I was always an outlaw before I met you’ seems to strike a chord with the crowd tonight.
‘Great Dane’ inspires a mass singalong, with camera phones held aloft to capture what feels like a moment for Cosmo Pyke at this intimate venue as he sings ‘I don’t mind to reignite the fire, besides from that weed we light’. To celebrate drummer Jim’s birthday, Cosmo leads the Happy Birthday singalong, in the most Cosmo style possible, languid yet staccato.
Ebullient, Cosmo graciously proclaims “Looking in the crowd, seeing many happy faces and familiar faces. Thank you for coming”. His lyrics deal with of a wide range of topics from serious such as his run-ins with the police to light-hearted tales, but his upbeat, happy-go-lucky on-stage persona is the one constant.
His aptly titled song ‘Chronic Sunshine’ gets a huge reception and he acknowledges that his set is coming to a close, wishing the crowd a succinct “Night night” as the catchy hook of the song describes the effects of marijuana and his ongoing escapades cycling between Peckham and Brixton from his 2017 debut LP ‘Just Cosmo’. On his last song of the set ‘Cursers Lament’ he sings ‘My girl, I’m your guy’. For his encore, ‘Social Sites’, a song inspired by an ex-girlfriend and the role social media plays in a relationship, in a fittingly chilled and blissful end to his short but sweet set.
★★★★☆