9am

This song started as a normal morning with bad weather and too much thinking. It walks through a single day after a breakup: 5am, 9am, 5pm, 10pm. You make coffee, you check a photo you should probably hide, you do the dishes, you tell yourself you are fine, then you miss them a little. Nothing dramatic, just real life.

The chorus is the centre of it: you don’t own me, I don’t owe you. It is not angry, it is just clear. No scorecards, no big speeches, no one to punish. Sometimes things end and you try to leave each other with some dignity.

I like that the verses stay small. Rain, clocks, the gate, the sink. That is how most days feel after a split. You get on with it, then it taps you on the shoulder now and then. The song keeps circling back to that line, which is pretty much how the day works too.

Musically it keeps a steady pace. Vocal up close, nothing rushed. The hook lands each time the time of day flips over. You feel the loop, then you move on to the next bit of the day.