MAY-A’s “Central Station” Turns Idle Crushes Into Movie Scenes

A tweet that I can’t help but think of lately: “Waiting for a train is one of the most cinematic and romantic things a person can do. Idk why, but it is.” MAY-A doesn’t attempt to give any answers either on her newest single—the last from her EP Don’t Kiss Ur Friends—but she’s no stranger to the intimacy and grandeur and allure of a train: a sideways glance, grazed shoulders, seated only a few feet apart from an impossible crush before they disappear, never to be seen again. A place of transience, missed connections, and, therefore, the perfect breeding ground for fantasies.

With a bucketful of reverb and a fraction of the BPM, “Central Station” could be a dream-pop cut, its gauzy guitars multiplied until they’re lush enough to cushion all the futures MAY-A extrapolates in her head. “Maybe we’ll meet in another life,” she sighs, clinging onto her reveries between her teeth before the sliding doors close in front of her. This is reality, though—and so the guitars crash unabated, and drums pulverize hope like wheels against gravel, MAY-A’s strained voice hurtling through the tunnels with each “I wanna be yours.” Daydreams of a stranger that were idle, innocuous become blown up to picture-perfect proportions: desperate and relentless.

Hear this song on the PM Picks Spotify playlist.