AURORA: What Happened To The Heart

Aurora’s new album What Happened to the Heart lulls hypnotically at first, with the first track Echo of My Shadow transporting listeners to the clouds, in typical Aurora fashion. It is a nod to human helplessness and procrastination, but gorgeously framed in a sound reminiscent of daybreak. Instantly we relate and we are forgiven. But the album is a journey. The seventh track Earthly Delights is sensuous in its audible rapture; an illumination and acceptance of fear and lust. A Soul With No King seems to trace the outline of stoic mountains and forests as a haunting folk violin accompanies the frank lyric: ‘nothing will ever change, no guilt, no shame’, harnessing that quiet strength and trascendence of true love. The drop in Starvation makes the hairs stand on end without even knowing Aurora’s message behind it: the painful injustice of a broken, detached, modern world. This is powerful stuff. It makes you wonder why the entire world isn’t already singing about this. Blade is a mantra. It’s got pulse. The simple lyric ‘I feel rage’ is a stark and brutal reminder of how unfathomably uncommon it is, still, to hear female artists singing authentically about emotion. Her beautiful vocals in Dreams and throughout the album, stretch her words giving them a stunning musical dynamism reminiscent of Kate Bush and Bjork. Aurora’s voice imitates the human experience as she recreates flesh and feeling: ‘soft hearts need protection’ mimics the thudding heartbeat whilst exposing anger’s true sensitive and vulnerable core. Her collaboration with Ane Brun and Chemical Brothers marks her experimentation with genre, which is a testament of her dedication to the needs of her listeners. What Happened to the Heart is a refreshing and needed study of humanity; a grappling with what we have done but a reminder of what we are capable of doing. A must-listen for anybody who feels alienated by the innumerable contradictions of the modern world.