The album narrates her breakup with the contemporary-art star Matthew Barney, but avoids tabloid fodder or self-indulgence; the music speaks to personal and universal feelings of heartbreak.
Amplifying the details of her romantic disappointments until they became universals, it charted heartbreak from outrage (Rolling in the Deep) to resolution (Someone Like You).
"W-w-who are you?" "Heartbreak" is the universal diagnosis for the pain that accompanies the end of love.
Even at its most myopic, "Girls" frequently captured something true about misadventures in adulting, as Dunham and company parsed the more universal experiences of their age group ― self-discovery, heartbreak, loneliness, etc. ― with bracing wit and empathy.
What's beautiful about it is that sex is such a universal experience and that the joys and the awkwardness and the discoveries and the heartbreaks of sex are so human.
The Corrs Borrowed Heaven (Universal) A sobering thought: in 25 years, will the Corrs be regarded as purveyors of quality heartbreak, much as Abba have made the critical leap from piffle to poignancy?
