Joy Crookes Finds the Funny Side of Heartbreak on ‘Painkiller’
Joy Crookes links with Denzel Curry on “Painkiller”, turning the remains of a destructive relationship into something playful, sharp and far easier to enjoy than the relationship itself.
Joy Crookes turns a bad relationship into something with considerably better timing on “Painkiller”, linking with Denzel Curry for a track that laughs, shrugs and rolls its eyes at the kind of decisions that only make sense while you’re making them.
Crookes wrote “Painkiller” years ago, following the end of what she calls a “destructive relationship”. Starting life as a voice note before being developed with Dweller, the track doesn’t give the breakup the satisfaction of becoming some grand tragedy. Instead, Crookes picks through why she ended up there at all.
“I wrote Painkiller years ago after the end of a destructive relationship,” she explains, describing the song as a conversation around why she dated the person in the first place.
Her eventual conclusion is much better: “alas, at least I got a nice tune out of it.”
And she did.
“Painkiller” has a strut to it. Its ’90s hip-hop influence gives the track its bounce, while the strings bring a little drama without turning a bad boyfriend into Shakespeare. Crookes sounds completely at home recounting romantic chaos without getting swallowed by it. Hindsight has given her something far more entertaining to work with.
Then Denzel Curry turns up.
On paper, Crookes and Curry might catch you off guard. On the record, it takes about five seconds to stop questioning it. “Painkiller” already has enough hip-hop in its bones for Curry to slide straight in, bringing a different energy without barging Crookes out of her own song. It feels less like a feature stitched onto the end and more like somebody else joining a conversation already in full swing.
The Ethan & Tom-directed video takes that same idea and lets the relationship play out properly. Shot over two days in Chicago while Crookes was supporting Lewis Capaldi in the US, it starts with enough chemistry to make you buy into the couple before things slowly begin to sour.
They nearly didn’t have the boyfriend. After struggling to find the right person for the role, producer Danny Herman spotted Matt Whipps at The Wormhole Coffee Shop in Chicago shortly before filming. Denzel takes a different route entirely, appearing through a karaoke screen during his section rather than stepping directly into Crookes’ increasingly messy romance.
That’s what makes “Painkiller” so enjoyable. Crookes isn’t romanticising the relationship and she isn’t pretending it didn’t hurt. She’s simply reached the much better stage afterwards, where the bad decisions become stories, the red flags become punchlines and, if you’re Joy Crookes, the whole thing gets a very good soundtrack.
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