Guitarist and songwriter Joakim Johansson crafts a live-band pop-rock soundscape around a heartfelt and notably vulnerable single – Shattered Heart reflects with poetry and personal honesty, on the pain of separation and a broken heart.
Built around a timeless set-up of keys, bass, drums and guitar, the song follows the unique and characterful vocals of Joakim Johanssson, through a tale of both the highs of love and the desperate lows of a breakup. It’s piercingly relatable, yet also joyfully bright on the musical front.
The song gathers impassioned momentum as it rolls along, later welcoming a selection of backing vocals and some humble guitar solo moments to really brighten things up.
This final third also sees the instrumental completely maintain its groove – the presentation earlier followed a more storytelling structure, with stops and starts as per the changing emotions of our protagonist. Now we get a beautiful crescendo of heartache and musical celebration all at once – a juxtaposition that both uplifts and cries out on behalf of this Shattered Heart.
It’s a style that takes influence from pop and pop rock in a way that transcends the changing eras, but it’s also a song with a clear twist of contemporary realness, and Joakim’s voice and writing style all gift that familiarity a welcomed edge of freshness.
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