A SOLE trumpeter plays a lonely air on the riverside terrace, and is joined by a dashingly besuited fellow, stage left, maybe a little bit Gatsby; we glimpse Sophie in her party frock, sitting, where she joined by the dashing young buck – but only momentarily, as she steps away and into song. They dance the dance of courtship; but as she reveals in the lyrics, it’s a yearning scenario; she’s in fact missing her lover: ” … gets so quiet when you’re gone / I watch people selling houses, or somethin'”.
It’s the video for Sophie Morgan’s new single, “Always”, which you can delight in below, her voice poised between honey and huskiness as piano and strings unfold.
We’ve all been there, playing out imaginary and often far more seductive scenarios in our head to escape the grey grind of the day … ring any bells, fellow lockdown veterans?
“Always” is Sophie’s first drop of 2021, following on from last year’s much-loved Marmalade EP.
The recording features The Verve’s Simon Jones on bass – she’s known him since her teens – and Matt Ingram, of Laura Marling’s band, on drums.
What began as a tune for the lonely came to represent something more universal as the pandemic exploded across our world, as she explains (Sophie was actually partway through a tour with Yorkshire duo Seafret at the time): “The song always felt like a waltz for the lonely. I saw myself slowly swaying empty armed around the living room.
“I had that first line, ‘leave the TV on’, about watching dodgy daytime television shows like Homes Under The Hammer.
“It made me think of elderly people, maybe who have lost their significant other, spending most days dreaming of special nights dancing together, losing a little bit of sanity with each passing day alone,” she adds, sadly.
And just check how that video concludes, her amour vanishing like smoke into the suddenly pitch night air. Reality bites … .
“We created the set in a local theatre, the first place I ever sang in public when I was nine,” Sophie says of the video.
“We joked that we were trying to make a million-dollar video on a shoestring in the middle of a pandemic and I hadn’t even danced since school PE. But I’m really proud we somehow managed to bring my crazy idea to life.”
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