AURORA What Happened To The Heart?
Released Jun 7, 2024 Glassnote Entertainment Group LLC
Consensus forming 3 professional reviews Updated Oct 3, 2026
Broadly positive consensus
Consensus is still forming across 3 professional reviews. AURORA's What Happened To The Heart?
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
The Dark Dresses Lightly
2 critic mentions
“All this fear, it’s contagious” — DIY Magazine
A Soul With No King
1 critic mention
“A Soul With No King” — Hot Press
Your Blood
1 critic mention
“Your blood / Do you feel it travel in and out of your heart?” — DIY Magazine
Full critic consensus
AURORA's What Happened To The Heart? opens as a bruised, searching collection that folds personal heartbreak into spiritual and environmental reckoning. Across three professional reviews the record earned an 80/100 consensus score, with critics noting its mix of orchestral sweep, electronic textures and intimate folk moments as Aurora frames loss of spiritual connection alongside climate and philosophical concerns. The hook here is unmistakable: the album stitches catharsis and activism into songs that alternately comfort and unsettle.
Critics consistently praise standout tracks when addressing the best songs on What Happened To The Heart?. Reviewers singled out “The Dark Dresses Lightly” and “A Soul With No King” as a stunning centerpiece pairing, while “Your Blood” and “Starvation” earn praise for their indelible melodies and anthemic reach. Hot Press celebrated the journey from fragile moments like “The Essence” to doomsday dance-pop on “Earthly Delights”, DIY Magazine highlighted the incandescent pain of “To Be Alright” and “Your Blood”, and The Line of Best Fit credited quieter cuts such as “Echo of My Shadow” and “Some Type of Skin” with emotional core even as it critiqued occasional indecision.
While professional reviews mostly admire Aurora's ambition and vocal transcendence, they diverge on execution: some critics call the album cathartic and expansive, others find its compositional detours dilute focus. The consensus suggests What Happened To The Heart? is worth listening for its standout tracks and thematic urgency, even if tighter editing might have sharpened its full potential. Scroll down for full reviews and track-by-track notes on whether the record lives up to its promise.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Echo of My Shadow
To Be Alright
Your Blood
The Conflict Of The Mind
Some Type Of Skin
The Essence
Earthly Delights
The Dark Dresses Lightly
A Soul With No King
Dreams
My Name (feat. Ane Brun)
Do You Feel
Starvation
The Blade
My Body is Not Mine
Invisible Wounds
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
AURORA carries a bruised grandeur through What Happened To The Heart?, where the best songs - notably “To Be Alright” and “Your Blood” - make pain feel incandescent. Robinson’s voice lingers on lines like "What is life worth living if you don’t bleed for anything?", framing “To Be Alright” as a Kate Bush-like plea that anchors the record. “Your Blood” is praised for its queasy, hopelessly romantic melodies and preppy guitars, the sort of indelible indie-pop moment that answers searches for the best tracks on What Happened To The Heart?. Elsewhere, anthemic cuts such as “The Dark Dresses Lightly” and “Starvation” broaden the album from personal bruising to spiritual and societal reckonings, making the standout songs both intimate and expansive.
Key Points
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The best song is “To Be Alright” for its Kate Bush-like, visceral plea anchoring the album.
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The album’s core strengths are vivid, poetic lyrics and a sonic shift from intimate heartbreak to wider spiritual and societal critique.
Themes
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Critic's Take
AURORA’s What Happened To The Heart? feels like an ecosystem she has patiently built, full of rhetorical questions and sweeping sonic choices that demand attention. The review sings most warmly for the album’s centerpiece pair, “The Dark Dresses Lightly” and “A Soul With No King”, calling that one-two punch stunning and memorable. Caroline Kelly praises the contrast between muted moments like “The Essence” and the doomsday dance-pop of “Earthly Delights”, arguing they map a journey from fragility to strength. Overall the record is presented as Aurora’s most cathartic album yet, terrific in its orchestral, electronic and folk-laden ambitions.
Key Points
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The best song pair is “The Dark Dresses Lightly” and “A Soul With No King” because they most memorably address the album's theme of spiritual disconnection.
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The album's core strengths are its sweeping sonic palette and emotional journey from fragility to strength.
Themes
Critic's Take
AURORA trudges through What Happened To The Heart? with goodwill and empathy, yet the record’s best moments - notably “Echo of My Shadow” and “Some Type of Skin” - feel like glimpses rather than resolutions. Tanatat’s voice is measured and a touch weary here, observing how those songs still carry Aurora’s emotive core even as the album flirts with disco and trend-chasing. The reviewer argues that the best tracks on What Happened To The Heart? show her vocal transcendence and genuine concern for others, but they are weighed down by indecisive composure and familiar tropes. Ultimately, the critique frames the standout songs as evidence that with tighter focus and fewer detours, greater artistic heights remain reachable.
Key Points
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“Echo of My Shadow” is the best song because it foregrounds Aurora’s emotive voice and empathetic lyrics.
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The album’s core strength is Aurora’s empathy and vocal transcendence, though it is undermined by indecisive genre choices.