What is the secret recipe to make a summer hit song? If you posed this question to a producer, they would most likely answer with the following: popping electronic drums on an energetic tempo, acoustic guitar coupled with thin Stratocaster chord punches, catchy vocal melodies, heavy compression, all toppled with a variety of production gimmicks finished with a seasoning of synth swoops and plucks. Just thinking on all those, you could probably make your own summer anthem for your thoughts alone, or you could be blackbear and exercise all these in an eccentric new summer anthem, queen of broken hearts.

The fact that blackbear uses all these elements that are used so commonly in this genre isn’t a bad thing per se. It might make the song sound familiar, but his unique delivery makes the tune feel refreshing nonetheless. The short length of the track, clocking in just under three minutes, makes this a nice, quick taste of those summer vibes. It’s undoubtedly fun, and that’s exactly what this song aimed to be, nothing more or nothing less. Its self-awareness is this song’s greatest strength, and rather than hide in its familiarity in shame, it wears it like a badge of honor, and thus succeeds in its purpose. The melody, while being extremely catchy, does seem a little too simplistic at first (too diatonic, for my fellow music nerds). The melody quickly turns around, playing with the tension of the already tense E7 chord at the very end of the chorus (“when did I become so dark”), where the melody switches between the root and the flat 9 with each word; an extremely bold move that brings quite a lot of tension to the composition, and adds weight to the already grim lyrics of that line in particular. That alone will captivate even non-music nerds, regardless of whether they know how risky something like that would normally be in a pop song. Blackbear has never shied from trying new things, however, and that part alone makes this song all the more special, and all the more ‘blackbear’.

Queen of Broken Hearts is a simple, fun yet daring track that will be blasted all across the nations on Bluetooth speakers by young adults, and that’s exactly what it’s meant to be, outside of just being a great track in general. Blackbear knew exactly what he was doing, which is what makes this song so good.

 pop 

Author: Nicholas Gaudet

Music producer and writer from Dieppe, Canada.