“Loser Monologue,” by Sign Crushes Motorist, is 2:56 of uncut, unrequited longing. “If you knew how I felt, I wouldn’t even be writing this s–t,” the singer-songwriter says at one point, pivoting towards self-disgust as a haze of sustained notes swells around him. “I wouldn’t be so lonely.
” There is no percussion and little change to the melody, just Sign Crushes Motorist discussing romantic fantasies that he knows “will never happen.” A drumless dispatch from the perspective of a despondent loner — not usually what people imagine as pop music. Yet “Loser Monologue” has more than 55 million plays on Spotify alone.
“People are just drawn to that kind of stuff once in a while,” says Liam McCay, the 19-year-old behind Sign Crushes Motorist. His theory is that, while listening, “you can pretend like you’re not as mature as you are.” In addition to Sign Crushes Motorist, McCay records under more than a dozen other names, including Take Care, Sweet Boy, Birth Day and more.
Across these monikers, his most popular tracks often share some characteristics: leisurely tempos, short lengths, simple guitar melodies but often little else in the way of instrumentation, and vocals that are hushed to the point they can be hard to make out. When they’re discernible, though, the lyrics often conjure what McCay describes as “a sense of longing for some kind of a connection.” “You weren’t supposed to leave, and now you’re gone,” he sighs on Sweet.
