"Heartbroken Since You," the latest single from Emily Lane, is a glitter-coated time machine straight to the heart of every millennial who ever wished life imitated the final scene of an early-aughts teen movie. It's angsty and hooky and joyously unserious in just the right way.
Emily's pop-rock beginnings shine through with playful certainty from the jump. The first few moments of the song unfold as a hallway montage, a flood of airy memories and eyeliner-heavy charisma that sounds like it's been plucked from the opening credits of some high school coming-of-age film. You can almost visualize the lunchroom explosions and slow-motion drumstick flips. But while the vibe is a throwback, the songwriting is anything but old-fashioned. Emily introduces her well-honed storytelling impulses directly front and center on the track, lending emotional texture beneath its sugar-spiked exterior.
Coated in a glossy punk-pop sheen, the track comes across as a pep rally anthem gone rogue. Emily sings with all that fun, theater-kid energy, but she's grounded, loud, and brassy without setting off an overload of drama. It's cheeky, it's fun, and it's unapologetically self-aware. There's heartbreak in the title, but there's also a wink. Emily bounces the memory of lost young love around and dresses it in glitter, turning its bittersweetness into fuel for the kind of emotional singalong you bellow out from the backseat with your best friend. There's catharsis in the chorus, and it's served up with just the right amount of sincerity and sass.
This is a snapshot of a particular moment. A place where dreams of rock stardom were born in garages, heartbreaks were poetic tragedies, and nothing was more rebellious than playing your own song at the school assembly. Emily Lane gets into that feeling, and out it sounds brand new. On "Heartbroken Since You," she's reinventing, proving that pop can still have personality, and heartbreak can still wink.