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- Summary: The fifth full-length studio release from Norwegian alt-pop singer-songwriter AURORA features contributions by Ane Brun, Dave Hamelin, Tom Rowlands, and Matias Tellez.
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- Record Label: Glassnote
- Genre(s): Pop/Rock
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 6
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Jun 12, 2024It is clear she has found strength in the discomfort. Reckoning with self-destructive feelings of fear, dissociation and anger, the album is a journey to personal healing, ending with the gentle song Invisible Wounds, which evokes the image of Aurora tending to her wounds, stitching her heart back up.
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Jun 12, 2024Monolithic in nature, the world-building on ‘What Happened to the Heart?’ makes a bleeding heart – both for self and the earth – appear rapturous and unfathomably healing.
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Jun 12, 2024At her best, which is more often than not, Aurora’s literal and figurative voice is uniquely her own. “Learn my body and my poems/And repeat them like you own them,” she offers on “Dreams.” It’s this sense of poetry that keeps What Happened to the Heart? from feeling pedantic. But most of all, it’s her ability to locate the big, beating heart inside the machine.
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Jun 12, 2024AURORA has often been plagued with this patronising image of being another “ethereal” Nordic witch. This, though, is a fiery record dealing in reality – dancing with the imps rather than away with the fairies. Album highlight ‘My Name’ pulses with a Trent Reznor groove – a flash of evil but all guts, balls and intent.
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Jun 12, 2024A more concentrated soundscape, and a couple omissions, What Happened To The Heart? could’ve been a remarkable stepping stone to a career high. Almost everything feels transitory and unduly explorative, as if trying to discover another niche to excel in.
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Jun 24, 2024Though most of What Happened to the Heart? lands in a dance-pop middle ground stylistically, ballads like the Brazilian-flavored "The Essence" and synth-enhanced "Dreams" offer room to breathe with their drum-less or drum-light arrangements.