“Paper Hearts” by Lemon Grove deals with the difficult gap between intense love and the reality that exists around it. This alternative pop song is about two people who love each other so passionately that they start to soften and pastelise the reality of their situation, producing a version of the world in which their pain is more manageable. However, this method has a limitation: eventually there is no room for any change at all. The song expresses the tension between staying on with the love and coming to terms with what cannot be softened.
The production is significant in showing those changing abilities to tolerate reality; “Paper Hearts” alternates between moments which seem close and severe and others that become remote, thin and fluffy. This contrast produces in the song a sense of shifting perspective, one that mirrors the way the two people experience their situation. Rather than holding the emotional intensity in one place, the production lets it vary, so that the song can seem intimate at one time and detached at another.
There is in addition a more sombre pressure underneath the softer sections. The harsh reality continues to be there, and at various times threatens to overwhelm the listener. It is this shift from softness to discomfort that gives “Paper Hearts” its special quality, since the song does not depict the relationship as either entirely beautiful or entirely painful. Although the love is intense, so too is the reality surrounding it, and the gap between these two aspects becomes the key element of the track’s experience.
For those listeners who are drawn to Lana Del Rey’s cinematic sense of sadness and Adele’s emotional storytelling, “Paper Hearts” provides a similar emotionally charged reference point yet stays true to its own idea. By means of extensive production, The Lemon Grove maintains its focus on two people who are caught between love and a reality that is becoming harder to face, and the outcome is an alternative pop song centred on emotional tension, changing perspectives and the fragile effort to make an unbearable situation seem milder.
