Published: 11 February 2025

Joy Crookes has released the next track in her new musical era ‘Mathematics’, featuring Kano.

Produced by Blue May, ‘Mathematics’ is a gorgeously lush song that brings together soul, jazz and pop with Crookes’ emotive vocal masterfully driving the song into your heart. She sings of gradually falling in love with a partner only for that partner to sideline her. ‘Get in the deep end / Just to say we should be friends / But I don't want to be your backup part.’

“‘Mathematics’ was written when I was dating a French man who couldn’t understand what was going on between us wasn’t hieroglyphics, we were just falling in love and then he tried to friend zone,” Crookes says. “As I get to know this song better and sing it more, I’ve realised this song is somewhat an angry song about how easy I find it to love and the frustration that it can’t be reciprocated. It’s nice when a song becomes a medicine for lots of different fuckeries that life hands us. Kano came to hear the record with Blue May and then secretly recorded his verse to ‘Mathematics’ when I’d initially asked him to record on another song. He was drawn to ‘Mathematics’ and popped into the studio without us and literally just sent over a verse. It was so moving to see how he’d been moved enough to do this, almost like a little gift to this record.”

‘Mathematics’ follows the January single ‘Pass The Salt’, which was Crookes’ first new music since her critically acclaimed 2021 debut album Skin. Determined not to lose the spirit that drove the creation of that album, she has spent the past three years creating a portfolio of new music that will undoubtedly be a highlight of 2025. Stay tuned for more music from Crookes in the coming months.

‘Mathematics’ is out now via Sony Music Australia. You can buy and stream here.
Follow Joy Crookes on Instagram and Facebook
Read our six page interview with Joy Crookes in issue 11 of Women In Pop magazine.