London’s Joy Crookes is back with a starkly intimate new single, “I Know You’d Kill,” a song that unpicks various layers of trust, fear, and self-doubt with soulful but shadowy energy. Famed for her vibrant storytelling and genre-defying artistry, Crookes here reinforces her title as one of the most enchanting voices within the modern soul.
But at heart, “I Know You’d Kill” is a thoroughly personal rumination on vulnerability, one amplifying, through the lens of Glastonbury, a moment of triumph that, somewhat paradoxically, nurtured the conditions for anxiety. Caught up in the middle, Crookes began to guess everything she had built, wondering if the people surrounding her were in her corner. But in her moment of uncertainty, a stabilizing force returned to the picture. Her longtime manager provided encouragement and a reminder of the trust they had developed. That moment became the pulse of this song, morphing a moment of uncertainty about the right people into a hymn of ironclad faith in the right ones.
“I Know You’d Kill” is a tightrope stroll, sidling between good and evil. The rich, soulful crooning Crookes is known for is still present, but there is an undercurrent of disquiet in the melody, subtle but powerful. Her voice, weighted with emotion, coasted over the instrumentation with a hushed urgency like she was calculating how to balance the burden of her fears with the affirming resolve of her determination. It’s meditative yet never stagnant, evolving with each note, much like the artist herself.
Beyond the personal narrative, “I Know You’d Kill” speaks to anyone who has ever second-guessed their path or questioned the motivations of their mates. It’s about that silent moment before a leap of faith, the struggles we try and try to conquer before discovering that we are, in fact, not alone. Crookes has welcomed us into her life with this release, which is filter-free and raw. “I Know You’d Kill” is an exaltation of trust and resilience and the voices that keep us steady on our feet when we might fall.
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