We last heard from UK artist Joe Hicks in 2022 when he released his debut album, The Best I Could Do at the Time. The project showed his versatility not only as a singer and songwriter but also as a guitarist, as the sounds of his smooth yet intricate skills permeated airwaves from track to track. The following year, he went out on a headline tour around the UK and Europe, and his album was re-released in a deluxe format. All was going well, but such as life, things took a bit of a turn in 2024. Joe was dealing with a heavy breakup and the loss of his father, which took a toll. But luckily, with the encouragement of his long-time collaborator Tom Millar and producer Sam Winfield, Joe was able to channel his murky and complex feelings into new music. His new single “Time is a Thief” serves as an introduction to this music and his next chapter.
On “Time is a Thief,” exposes what he was going through at the time. Musically, we get lots of layers and textures, with bright sounds and overlapping rhythms. Lyrically, Joe latches onto despair and hopelessness with lines like, “I don’t know where I lost the key / Maybe it fell into the darkness / Taking hold of me.” Combined, the music and lyrics paint a complicated picture, full of noise and darkness. It all escalates at the end of the track, where Joe reaches a breaking point.
About “Time is a Thief,” Joe shares,
“‘Time is a Thief’ was a song that, when I had finished the lyrics, it revealed to me how I was truly feeling at the time—being in a mindset that everything was both pointless and meaningless. It showed me the stages of grief I’d been going through since losing my dad, where I was currently at, and also how that experience had shaped my outlook on life.”
You can listen to “Time is a Thief” here.
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