EP // Love You Later – Heaven Is Without You
Post by Misha
It’s endlessly amazing to me that even in the most desperately uncertain times, even as the world flirts with annihilation and even as every piece of news that reaches our ears is like a knife shaving down the few slivers of saved-up hope, that there are people out there making pop songs about heartbreak. It’s hard to explain why that is so comforting. I guess it’s because these songs offer a place to be sad without telling us what we have to be sad about. They help us frame tragedy as painful, but passing. Full of grace and beauty.
Love You Later’s debut EP is a collection of songs that are especially forgiving. Heaven Is Without You tells stories of letting go of things that needs to be let go. It is sad, but in the reflective and honest way rather than the breathless, bleeding way. And you get the sense that the heartbreak we’re talking about here is the kind that always needed to happen. The loss and sacrifice that people mean when they say “growth,” the ones that strengthen us in the way we need to be strengthened and don’t leave us broken in the ways that we fear.
These songs are small and engulfing. The have the weight of a thousand disappointments piled on top of each other; people not showing up when they said they would, plans falling apart, love being given and taken unevenly. But they are lightened by the sum of the wisdom gained from each tiny lesson.
It’s sometimes easier to get through hard, uncertain times when you’re able to frame loss and sacrifice this way, though it’s very difficult to get loss and sacrifice to stay within that frame. It’s helpful to have a model. That’s why I’m so grateful for everyone making pop songs about heartbreak right now. We need people telling painful stories gently, on top of shimmering synths and melodies so warm they melt in your ears. It’s a type of therapy to see something rough come out pink and pearl and covered in satin. It’s important to have stories to which you can reply, “It’s going to be OK,” and mean it.
You can stream Heaven Is Without You on Spotify or Apple Music. Keep up with Love You Later on Instagram and Twitter.