> review: sarya – i'll break my heart (so you don’t have to) - SNACK: Music, film, arts and culture magazine for Scotland

review: sarya – i’ll break my heart (so you don’t have to)

Listeners of SNACK’s ‘Best of 2020’ playlist may have noticed the spoken word track ‘a good day’ by sarya – an eloquent and delicate reflection on the tangled mess that is trying to exist as a good person in the world today. The track encompasses everything we love about sarya, an up-and-coming musician and poet living in Edinburgh; their work exists within the ethereal space between poetic musings and melancholy ruminations, in the world of bedroom and electronic pop.

sarya’s upcoming single ‘i’ll break my heart (so you don’t have to)’ is a dreamy love letter to unrequited crushes. They sing earnestly about toying with the love you feel towards a friend who unfortunately doesn’t return your feelings. The song is a commentary on treating your own heart as a plaything, and ultimately protecting it from the pain that exists alongside it with your own, deliberate, silence; it is an idle contemplation of the spiky anticipation which surrounds young love.

The single follows on from their self-released EP take care of yourself in 2020, and continues in the same style of soft speech and airy vocals we have come to expect from sarya’s music. These are songs which build anticipation, beginning quietly – simple and stripped back – only to build layers quickly, in tandem with the emotional peaks sarya describes in their carefully straightforward lyrics.

sarya writes music for those seeking importance in the small things. She writes for those who look at the gossamer that surrounds them and brush it away, to more clearly see the meaning in confusing texts and uncertain friendships, however painful that may be. ‘i’ll break my heart (so you don’t have to)’ is a song to listen to if you’re looking for reassurance that unrequited feelings do not mean you’re alone in the world.

i’ll break my heart (so you don’t have to) is out now

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