What does it mean to love someone beyond all sense? When every red flag is screaming in your face, yet you try to stay the course and pop on a pair of rose-tinted glasses instead? Well, this is the core of Helsinki duo The Lemon Grove’s newest single ‘Paper Hearts’, which dives headfirst into the lies we tell ourselves to keep a love alive long past its sell-by-date.
‘Paper Hearts’ starts off as an unassuming alt-pop reverie, where surging electronica leads listeners into a fae-like harp section. Here, the one-half of The Lemon Grove embodies a somewhat delusional state as she sings “la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la” in an attempt to block out the growing reality that threatens to break the constructed fantasy of a perfect relationship. One lyric that stands out to us here is “going through the motions while drowning out the oceans.”
At around the 02:35 minute mark, the track gradually departs from the feathery pop style in favour of a moodier, guitar-led confession where the image of “paper heart” is introduced. It comes to light that this origami fiction of the real thing is nothing but a shallow imitation. This realisation is mirrored by The Lemon Grove‘s brilliant use of sonic contrast to demonstrate that tension between illusion and truth.
No doubt, the pair’s background as psychologists has helped enhance their insightful eye into the human psyche, but this type of relationship isn’t uncommon either, and many listeners will find refuge and understanding within ‘Paper Hearts’.
You can also listen to ‘Paper Hearts’ in our Shades of Pop playlist.
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