Queen Cult vocalist and guitarist Maisie Johnson describes the Macclesfield band’s new single ‘Blackhole‘ as a song she wrote to herself during a difficult time. Examining that period following a break up when you re-evaluate your life to figure out what it looks like without that other person’s influence, the titular blackhole is the dark place inside your own head when you struggle to stop overthinking and end up losing your sense of self.
It begins softly, with gentle chimes creating a drifting sensation, making you feel lost in an atmosphere of confusion. The signature Queen Cult guitar leaps in with a quicker tempo, but that initial feeling lingers beneath.
The lyrics acknowledge the pain of the person you normally turn to when you have difficult things to work through being the one person you can’t turn to now. They’re direct, but are delivered with depth, amplified by the strings roaring beneath them. It almost feels like a conversation as they echo the things you might hear from well-meaning friends trying to be comforting, but equally could be simply the platitudes you tell yourself to hurry up the healing process. They capture the internal conflict, jumping between “Tell myself I’m gonna be fine” and “Don’t tell me time will heal / Babe, I’m still allowed to feel”.
Despite being explicitly drawn from one particular experience, this track focuses so well on that internal personal introspection that it’s easy to project your own experiences onto; that period of readjustment is necessary, no matter how the relationship ended. Queen Cult have nailed that sweet spot where this song is simultaneously intensely personal and universally accessible.
‘Blackhole’ takes you on through the entire process of healing and growth, flowing between the different emotional stages – the loud, roaring confusion as you work out the new shape of your life. Both the tense impatience of wanting to be able to move on and the frustration at the entire situation juxtaposed with the softer moments that drift between sad reflection on the lost relationship and a hopeful, positive look towards the future. Finally, it reaches the upbeat sense of making progress and the feeling of relief and empowerment from things starting to make sense again.
Kirstie Summers
@ActuallyKurt
Get In Her Ears 