Los Angeles singer/songwriter Natalie Saint-Martin reconciles the pain of unrequited romance with the necessity of unabashed love in her new single “Heart Stop.” The first song of the year from the classically trained pianist turned chronicler of personal odysseys, she also recently submitted an acoustic version as for NPR’s Tiny Desk.
Swelling with a vibrant carnival of melodics “Heart Stop” ambles forward to the tune of Saint-Martin’s solemn but gleamingly lightweight piano keys. Against their earnestly haunting tumble, she cuts into the wounds of a love that’s been tested by both a physical and emotional gulf, its lyrics unfolding as a bittersweetly one-sided catch-up between former lovers.
“A hundred different faces, / Confused what we were feeling,” she sings desperately, evoking the frustrating anguish that defines one’s arduous search for mutual affection. “A hundred different places, / Manipulate the feeling.” Originally from Atlanta but raised in Los Angeles, Saint-Martin’s words echo and trace her personal reckonings with both the wreckage and salvage of love.
Yet the single never teeters fully into the sorrow that sits on the cusp of her lyricism. Instead — roused by its melody and her soaring cries — “Heart Stop” arrives as a moving challenge to keep asking the hard questions when it comes to that lofty and elusive pursuit of love.
“Maybe you’re just nervous? / Or don’t know what you’ve got,” she ponders, comforted by the warm tones of guitars and a tuba. Whether you’re reeling from heartbreak or stumbling through a relationship she reminds us to ask an all too imperative question: “Do you want what’s easy? / Or want to feel your Heart Stop?”
“Falling in love is the one experience every person hopes to feel at some point in their life,” Saint-Martin said of the single. “Sometimes it happens as a teenager or as an adult, but the rushes of emotions are always made of butterflies and anticipation regardless of age. We go through life in search of finding out who we are meant to be, almost as much as we are in search of finding the person we hope we are meant to be with. ‘Heart Stop’ was written as a reminder to keep asking yourself and the person you love.”
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Listen to “Heart Stop” the new single from Natalie Saint-Martin below!
