As I mentioned below, I am teaching an asynchronous pop music class to a group of Stephens College conservatory students this summer, and enjoying it. One day a little over a week ago, I was scanning the latest hot takes in a Facebook music group I belong to that is made up of avid fans of the hoary but still effectively hortatory pop music critic Robert Christgau. Yes, nerds. It just so happened that Xgau (as he is known to us) had just laid a very positive review upon the Scottish pop person known as Lewis Capaldi in his monthly “Expert Witness” column, concerning his new album Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent. I had skipped Capaldi’s debut album, honestly because Bob’s positive review of it contained phrases that signaled I need not waste my finite seconds exploring it (also, he is an 81-year-old who sometimes tries too hard, it seems to me, to stay relevant to the kiddies). Well, it appeared from my skimming of reactions in that Facebook group that a bit of poptimist vs. rockist acne was breaking out, and, like acne, some of it was funny.

Later in the day, I was grading some student work, suddenly sat bolt upright (usually face down into the keyboard is my usual response), and wrote the class, “Hey, is anyone a Lewis Capaldi fan?”

I waited a few hours, and finally, a lone response popped up in my email: a bright, hardworking, and enthusiastic student named Sophie Davis reported that she loved the album. Rubbing my hands together in mischievousness, I offered her a deal (well, we kind of collaborated on it): if she’d write a full-length review of Broken By Desire, breaking it down to its essence, I’d excuse her from three of the five weekly assignments she had coming up. Of course, it had to be good, but her previous work had already shone, so I felt confident about that part. Also, I did take the dive and listen to the rascal’s record–and kinda kinda liked it. As the descendent of two Scottish lines that began in castles that don’t look so good right now, I was now rooting a bit for him, but mostly, I was hoping Sophie might nudge me off the fence. She did. Here’s what she came up with:

Lewis Capaldi’s Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent: A Tour of That Rollercoaster Called Love.

A review by Sophie Davis, Stephens College Conservatory

Lewis Capaldi’s Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent” is an album that speaks about love as a whole: the good, the bad, and the ugly. When I say that listening to this album is an absolute rollercoaster, I mean it wholeheartedly. While studying this album and searching for common themes, I found myself thinking I had found the overall theme multiple times, only for it to change every other song. With this in mind, I will be taking you through each theme, as well as dissecting the emotion behind it and its effect on my soul.

Capaldi starts off the album strong with “Forget Me.” My immediate reaction to this song was that this album was about to be a breakup album, but not in the typical sense. It’s true—this is a breakup album in many ways, but it’s still very unique and well-crafted. “Forget Me” is the kind of break-up song that makes you want to dance around the room and scream along to the lyrics. It perfectly captures the moment of feeling betrayal, as you realize the other person is moving on and, in turn, forgetting you. This is the perfect way to start an album, as it gives us our first theme: the fear of letting go of an old love.

Moving forward in the album, we are met with “Wish You The Best.” This song perfectly captures the realization that you don’t always get the closure of telling someone how much you still love them even after breaking up. This is the moment of acceptance—realizing that you just want what’s best for the person you love, even if their best is without you. He contemplates everything he did wrong that could have possibly led to the parting between him and his previous lover. In the end, we see fully his acceptance of the fact that all he can do is be happy for her and everything she has accomplished without him. (Also, as a side note, this music video is soul crushing and beautiful.)

“Pointless” is one of my top three songs on Broken By Desire. When first listening to it, I was immediately under the impression that he was talking about a current lover. However, upon listening to it more, I realized that he could very well be talking about a love that is yet to come into his life. The lines “I’ll wait for you/ You’ll wait for me, too” make me believe this is a possibility. Plus? The very solid understanding about what he gets from her and what she gets from him makes me think this is about someone for whom he is patiently waiting. This song is truly talking about the purest form of love that any human can experience. It fills my soul with so much joy and reveals the good parts of love. One thing that is very beautiful about Lewis Capaldi’s voice is that, because he has such a raspy belt, it adds such a one-of-a-kind sound to the ballads on this album, especially including this song. So, not only are we getting this beautiful ballad that perfectly captures a healthy and balanced love, but we have the rawness of Capaldi’s voice to add to that. “Pointless” is the first song on the album that introduces us to a fully positive aspect of love and gives many hope for a future love that they have yet to meet.

“Heavenly Kind of State of Mind” is another song that you can dance around the room to. It perfectly captures the excitement of finding new love and the joy you get from that. You can roll the windows down and listen to it with the love of your life. The lyrics “Now I think about you all of the time/ What a heavenly kind of state of mind” perfectly capture how beautiful life becomes when you are in love with someone who is good for your soul. “Heavenly Kind of State of Mind” is how it feels when you start to see life in color again when you have someone to love who also loves you so fully.

“Haven’t You Ever Been In Love Before” gives us a chance to see how two very different people view love. While Lewis is singing about a man who is ready to jump in and lay everything out on the table with his heart on his sleeve, the chorus reveals the girl’s perspective: how love hasn’t treated her well and is something that she has a hard time viewing positively. While he is completely ready to take this love by storm, she is hesitant. This is the point in the album when we start to see the less pretty parts of loving someone, because, despite it seeming perfectly balanced, we still see the struggles that come with relationships.

“Love The Hell Out of You” is another song that is among my top three on Broken By Desire. Its theme is simple: loving someone on their hard days, especially when their mental health is low, is never an issue when they do the same for you. Capaldi gives his loved one a little pep talk throughout the song as a way to show that he is here for them, no matter what they are going through. This song is exactly how a long warm hug from the right person feels. It’s simply lovely, because it shows the imperfections in a relationship and how to work through them with each other.

“Burning” is when the album starts to return to the heartbreak side of love: it deals with the realization that a relationship may no longer be healthy for either person, and staying in it is only going to make this realization more prominent and true. It’s about realizing that putting forth the energy it takes to keep this spark alive is no longer worth it and is only causing more pain for each person. It discusses the importance of knowing when to let go, even when you don’t want to. The exhaustion of holding onto something that no longer serves you is far too difficult to deal with and, after a while, it is better to let it all go.

“Any Kind Of Life” explores the struggle of wanting to hold on when you know it won’t do you any good to. The lyrics “Hope, have you some that I could borrow?” are heartbreaking to hear for anyone who has ever felt the fear that comes from leaving someone who was once such a huge part of their daily routine. One large theme we can now see in this album is the stages of grief that we go through with those who are still living. This song is the definition of denial, as Capaldi struggles to let go of this love that was his everything. His desperation to save this love conjures for me an image of someone struggling to keep water in their cupped hands. No matter how carefully you move, the water begins to slip through the cracks in your hands until it’s gone and there’s nothing else that can be done about it. This is the unfortunate and ugly side of heartbreak and love.

“The Pretender” is the last song of my top three from Broken By Desire: the definition of putting on a mask in order to fit into the world of someone else. This song is features Capaldi begging someone to tell him who to be so that he can be loved. As far as stages of grief go, he is bargaining with the person he is singing to. The idea of “I’ll do anything” in order to be loved is gut-wrenching, but so well evoked by the artist. Not only does it capture this bargaining mindset, but it also sheds light on something that many people of all generations experience: hiding how we really feel and who we truly are in order to make others feel comfortable and happy around us. Pretending like one isn’t “on the edge of a knife” is a very common problem for those who struggle with their mental health, and it’s oddly comforting to hear it represented in a song.

“Leave Me Slowly” reminds me of a classic Eighties heartbreak ballad. This is the kind of song that could be playing as you slow dance with the person you love for the last time, and you both know it. It’s conveys the feeling of deeply taking in the last moments you have with this person before you part ways. You get to eavesdrop as he returns to the time when they first met, and the appealing moments they shared together in this relationship. This is him asking the one he loves to take one more moment before they leave to just be with him. This song is how it feels to hug someone for the last time.

“How This Ends” is fueled by the anger that comes with heartbreak. Capaldi sings about how much time he wasted on this love and how it has all been for nothing, completely forgetting all of the good moments they shared. His anger can be felt in everyone’s chest, as we have all gone through this moment. This song presents the image of someone tearing their apartment apart as they try to destroy any trace of the person who caused them this much pain, feeling betrayed, used and defeated. Capaldi treats this whole experience as if his love for her was nothing more than a mistake, something he could have easily avoided had he chosen to not fall in love in the first place. The ending is too difficult for him to handle, and he longs for it to change—immediately.

“How I’m Feeling Now” ends the album in a very sad way. When we think of self-obsession, we usually imagine someone who is in love with themselves and is sort of narcissistic. We don’t usually think of a person who is trapped in their own mind. This is brilliant writing, because it gives everyone an idea of just how paralyzing mental illness can be, and how much it affects every aspect of our lives. The chorus is where our eyes are opened to the depth of Capaldi’s view of the world when facing mental illness: “So here’s to my beautiful life/ That seems to leave me so unsatisfied/ No sense of self but self-obsessed/ I’m always trapped inside my fucking head.” It is a not-so-happy toast at the end of a dinner party as someone reveals that they are miserable and broken, a sort of “in case you were wondering” moment where this person is confessing that their life is still difficult despite all the time that’s passed. Despite the misery communicated by this song, hope still flickers at the end, as Capaldi reasons that, one day, he will be okay—a fitting end to this brilliant album.

Many themes power this album: love—the good, the bad, and the ugly; the stages of grief as experienced through love; and (my personal favorite, I now realize) non-linear healing. We have our good days and we have our bad days, and, if we are lucky, we have someone who is with us through all of it. However, when those people aren’t around or when they leave, although healing slows, it’s still in motion. Love is the purest emotion anyone can feel. It can either fill a person with joy, or with utter despair—depending on who you ask. In the end, love is truly what gets each of us through the day. The beauty behind Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent lies in the fact that Lewis Capaldi does not hold back when taking the listener on a tour of every aspect of love. His singing communicates so much raw emotion through these songs and the story they tell taken altogether. Capaldi has fully shown us what love is and how magnificent and awful it can be, in a complete pop music masterpiece.

Blogmaster’s Note: Very nice job, Sophie! I am glad I’ve been off the rollercoaster and on solid ground for a couple-three decades–but even so, much of the Capaldi wisdom you extracted still occasionally applies. Thanks for being game!