On Nathaniel Heuer’s new single for his collaborative project Name Hymn, he shares a familiar feeling — actually, he kind of shouts it.
“I Won’t Break” sees him trying to assure a partner at the outset of a relationship that everything’s going to work out fine. The way Heuer delivers that message, however, doesn’t seem to bode well for the relationship’s long-term prospects. It almost sounds like he’s yelling it across a room, giving it a physical distance that doesn’t exactly scream “intimacy.”
Though my heart was beating in my chest
To you I must confess
I was weaker than the rest
But I won’t break your broken heart again
Make you whisper when
Our time is at an end
Any element of closeness happens in the last third of the song, when guests Mark Waldoch and Marielle Allschwang repeat the line, “I’ll try not to break / An already-broken heart.” Waldoch’s delivery is more subdued and assured, while Allschwang’s borders on desperation. The burgeoning lovebirds in the song are mostly on the same page, just maybe not emotionally.
Is there hope for them? Are they doomed? You can decide for yourself by listening to the song here, on the air at 88Nine or on Name Hymn’s two-track EP, Name Hymn Returns, which hits Bandcamp this Friday, Dec. 16.
