Jenny Stenger continues to voice the unspoken yearnings of a broken heart on her new single “Unlovable.” After releasing a series of singles last year like the ebullient pop questioner “What Ifs” and her fiercely vulnerable ballad “Rose Colored Lenses,” the singer/songwriter announces her return with another tug on the heartstrings. This time zeroing in with agonizing honesty on the doubts that haunt those struggling with love’s seemingly intentional sidesteps.
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Brimming with her densely poetic and personal lyricism “Unlovable” finds Stenger grasping desperately for emotional validation. The single reveals the immense difficulty of finding someone to love, let alone a person who reciprocates that feeling back to you in a positive way. While also serving as a poignant reminder that the ineffable aches and pains of the soul find themselves translated through her music.
“‘Cause lord knows you won’t tell me / Need to think it for myself,” she sings in her lambent voice. “Without things getting messy / Blaming myself for the things you felt.” But when love ends we tend to rummage through the wreckage for proof of our faults. “I don’t know how much longer I can blame bad timing,” she wearily confesses. “I don’t know how long I can think the problem’s not me.”
With piercing clarity, Stenger uncovers the terrible cycle that twists the heart and pesters the mind when things fall apart. Yet like so much of her music glints of beauty and hope resound at various points. From the crystalline glow of Stenger’s vocals — which at one point reflect off each other like a radiant hall of mirrors — to the urging acoustic presence of banjo and accordion swells provided by Nick Hancock.
“I wrote this song when I was dealing with the deep-rooted fear of being innately unlovable,” Stenger said. “It’s about trying to understand that there isn’t something wrong with you just because feelings are unrequited or relationships aren’t working out, but struggling to believe it and inevitably blaming yourself.”
Words: Steven Ward
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Listen to “Unlovable” the new single from Jenny Stenger below!
