Cosima - Had to Feel Something

Beyond the Tumblr-ready quotes on B&W imagery and close-up portrait shots, Cosima’s video for ‘Had to Feel Something’ shows a newcomer caught up in some kind of inner struggle. Circuiting city streets without a final destination, she navigates strange places in the hope of discovering a pot of gold at the end of the tunnel.

As debut tracks go, this is a bleak, brutally honest introduction. The Peckham-raised newcomer sings about emotional numbness, how “every day is a Monday and there’s no hope of Friday” when a certain someone’s heading for the exit. Technically a break-up song, it’s defined by smart, unorthodox twists. A dark, low-note guitar line - think Jai Paul’s ‘Jasmine’ with the lights off - is the only constant. Cosima’s vocal is similarly gloomy, the only refuge being how she floats over tricky notes like it’s a walk in the park. Her own sense of tragedy translates, which is pretty remarkable given the world knows next to nothing about her.