A review essay of What Happened to the Heart? by AURORA. Decca, Glassnote and Petroleum Records, 2024.

You can give up on me
Never give up on love [The Earth](Do You Feel? 0:07)

We can ignore what AURORA is saying, but we can never give up on The Earth.

One-and-a-half years distant from publication, What Happened To The Heart? remains the most distinct of Aurora Aksnes’ composed works. Why? Well, as a sort of political manifesto, What Happened To The Heart? contains vast unharbored emotions which are present in AURORA’s previous four studio albums, but which form the basis for this particular work. When compared to her previous four studio albums, AURORA’s emotions are more focused in What Happened To The Heart? This concept album is centred around The Earth. It is grounded, both literally and metaphorically. Released as a standard album on June 7th, 2024, and extended into a deluxe version on May 2nd, 2025, this album is AURORA’s most ambitious work ever. What Happened To The Heart? is a divisive album. I believe, though, that this is AURORA’s most climactic piece of work.

Moving on from the success of The Gods We Can Touch in 2022, AURORA released “Your Blood,” the first single off of What Happened To The Heart?, on November 8th, 2023. The release of this song was delayed due to the war in Gaza and Aurora Aksnes’ focus on showing solidarity with Palestine. AURORA noted on this delay across social media: “Hello my darlings🩸I’ve been feeling slightly torn about releasing new music, when there’s so much pain in the world. But with time I’ve decided there might be no better time to give you a little song… Than now🫀” (@AURORAmusic). This posting set the tone for What Happened To The Heart? AURORA has always been a ‘political’ artist, but What Happened To The Heart? began her shift into an activist. I believe that this shift was necessary. On November 6th, 2023, prior to the release of “Your Blood” and What Happened To The Heart?, AURORA posted on Instagram, “Boycott brands not people. Just another day of not buying: [an assortment of brands supporting the state of Israel]” (auroramusic). Change forms the basis of every relationship, and with this album, AURORA has declared herself political. Some people will detest this change, but I think AURORA’s coming into form is an incredible shift. In an interview with Imagine5 Magazine, promoting the release of What Happened To The Heart?, AURORA spoke firmly on this change: “I’ve been an artist for ten years now, […] I think people thought I was very like, head in the clouds, talking about nature. I didn’t even know I was an activist! I just talked about [nature] because I loved it, you know? But then I grew up and I grew angry, because I realized, oh shit. She [The Earth]’s much more hurt than I’ve been aware of” (Hynes). This newly realised activist identity forms the identity of What Happened To The Heart?

With the first single off of What Happened To The Heart?, AURORA introduces a few concepts which will flow throughout her album. In an eerie, electronic, EDM-fueled tune, AURORA poses the statement: “Just wait until tomorrow, it might not be as cold” (Your Blood 1:13). I do not believe that AURORA truly wants anyone to “wait until tomorrow;” she wants her fans to engage with The Earth. What Happened To The Heart?, in fact, is marked as composed by “The Earth;” fans of AURORA, then, are fans of “The Earth.” “Your Blood” forces listeners to begin to recognise that the world is breaking. Set against the religious themes present in The Gods We Can Touch, this song asks listeners to question their own faith. Acknowledging the broken and cold world, “Your Blood” asks listeners how far they will go to create a better Earth. AURORA has her answer:

And maybe if you called out for help

Then I could help you outrun yourself

[…]

We’ll run again

But I

I refuse to die

I refuse to die (1:50)

AURORA will go far to help fix the world, but she refuses to die. “Your Blood” asks, how far will you go? What does your blood mean, “[…] what matter are [you] made of” (3:49)?

“The Conflict of the Mind” was released on January 18th, 2024, as the second single off of What Happened To The Heart? This track tackles themes of mental illness and isolation; this single also works to establish the intense ideas that What Happened To The Heart? will continue to harbour within. “The Conflict of the Mind” is a slow track with a constant tone pinging throughout, offset by a string of arpeggios; this backing track stays within your mind. AURORA knows that her fifth album is intense, and this single relates to this with lines such as, “It’s a complicated story that we never talk about” (The Conflict of the Mind 0:32) and “I don’t want you to be worried that we’re running out of time” (0:46). Really, though, I believe that AURORA does want us to be worried that we are running out of time… I think that is why What Happened To The Heart? was written.

Before moving on to What Happened To The Heart? itself, it is important to recognise the final lines of “The Conflict of the Mind.” A written motif from this song will be a recurring theme as the album progresses. AURORA sings, “Love is you” (3:36). We are love and the Heart; and we too, are The Earth (as shown by AURORA naming her What Happened To The Heart? album-play-through tour, “What Happened To The Earth?”). We are love. We are Earth. These themes repeat throughout What Happened To The Heart?, and they define the album.

“Some Type of Skin” was released as the third single off of What Happened To The Heart?, and is listed as the fifth song on the album (“Your Blood” and “The Conflict of the Mind” are third and fourth, respectively). This single professes themes which roll straight out from “The Conflict of the Mind.” The narrator of this song is feeling overwhelmed at the state of the world, repeatedly noting, “My God! It’s a lot” (Some Type of Skin 0:57). A bouncing backing track slowly crescendoes as the narrator lets out a ghastly cry. This cry is one of the most musically intense moments on the entirety of What Happened To The Heart? Within the cries of this song, a narrator also recognises an idea: the people of Earth are good; “We’re good people / And we deserve peace” (1:53). The narrator of this song is wrestling with the question, though, of how we get to peace. This album, at large, wrestles with the solutions present within the climate crisis. What can we do to fix the Earth? This album is so elegant because it, in part, works to provide solutions encapsulated in a musical media format; hidden within What Happened To The Heart? is a call to become radicalised to care for the Earth.

What Happened To The Heart? released with sixteen songs (including the three aforementioned singles). The album begins with two songs that preach similar themes, but which harbour entirely different productions: first, “Echo of My Shadow” and second, “To Be Alright.” In “To Be Alright,” AURORA asks the question:

“What is life worth living“

If you don’t bleed for anything

Night after night

Oh, I long to be alright

I want to feel it, to feel it

What the people talk about

How do you find it so easy? (To Be Alright 1:33)

AURORA wants to feel alright. This is a song about caring too much. Is caring too much a bad thing? “To Be Alright” asks that question and more. The narrator of this song ultimately arrives at the conclusion that caring is hard. AURORA (and I), though, believe that caring is necessary. This song–like much of What Happened To The Heart?–acts as a hypothetical scenario. What happens if you disengage from the world? How is that dangerous? This second song from What Happened To The Heart? discusses these ideas to a bouncing electric beat.

In the first song off of What Happened To The Heart?–a slow and peaceful begging ballad–a narrator asks, “If you can’t rise for us, do it for love” (Echo of My Shadow 1:05). This is a lovely contradictory line; we are love, after all. The love referenced here is a repeat of the previously discussed motif: do it for Earth, in place of love. What an opening to What Happened To The Heart?! This album is built to make you think about yourself and the Earth as dependent and related, and this song begins that relationship.

Each subsequent song off of What Happened To The Heart? ties AURORA’s new identity in brilliant new ways, engaging in these pre-established melodies and motifs.

“Earthly Delights” is a song that engages with AURORA’s transition from slow folk music to upbeat rave tracks. There are parts of this song that would feel at home on AURORA’s 2026 EDM album, Come Closer. This is an upbeat song built on an electric percussion pad. “Earthly Delights” slowly crescendoes and builds as the verses move on. As is the case with the rest of What Happened To The Heart?, AURORA discusses intense themes within “Earthly Delights.” Since the release of her paired set of albums, Infections of a Different Kind of Human, in 2018 and 2019, AURORA has been integrating into her music an idea: we must leave Earth. We, of course, cannot actually leave Earth (AURORA knows that she has been posing idealised ideas to the masses). So what are we meant to do with songs like “Earthly Delights” or “A Different Kind of Human” / “Mothership” (both from 2019’s A Different Kind of Human)? I believe that we are meant to hold these ideals and disengage from them; if we can’t leave Earth, then we must save it.

“When the Dark Dresses Lightly” preaches the importance of becoming an activist. This song starts with uncertain instrumentation. “When the Dark Dresses Lightly” houses a ragtime piano and a pulsing beat. AURORA enters with shaking vocalisation, but comes into herself as she sings:

Here’s to us now, my dear

It took too long

Guess I shouldn’t have kept the knife in my heart for so long

Guess I shouldn’t have held back when I needed you to know (When The Dark Dresses Lightly 0:37)

Within this excerpt, the dynamic levels are elevated with each subsequent lyric. AURORA is increasing her volume as she sings through the narrator’s realisations. The narrator of this song categorises themselves as changed. It took too long to get to where they are, but they are there now. This idea, in part, mirrors AURORA’s incredible advocacy journey.

“When the Dark Dresses Lightly” ends with a scream from its narrator: “Oh yeah, oh yeah” (3:21). This emotion forces a pause from anyone who is listening to AURORA’s music simply to dance. But if you are listening simply to dance… “A Soul With No King” is a four-and-a-half-minute-long traditional Irish rhapsody ballad. This song is so unlike everything else on What Happened To The Heart?, and it is incredible! The chorus of this building bog runs: “Nothing will ever change, no guilt, no shame / Call out my name when you need me again” (A Soul With No King 3:37). This song once again asks listeners to acknowledge–beyond the lyrics–that things can change… we must simply make the change. Calling back to the themes present within “Your Blood,” “A Soul With No King” asks its audience how far they would go for their goals. Would you sell your soul to Satan (the unnamed soul present within”A Soul With No King”) to save the Earth?

From giving up everything for the Earth, body and mind, in “Your Blood” and “A Soul With No King,” AURORA asks, in “Dreams,” when is it okay to stop caring? I find this song to be one of my favourites off What Happened To The Heart? because it brought new ideas into my already radicalised mind. If you are awake for sixteen hours a day, when is it okay to stop caring about the Earth?… in your dreams. “Dreams” is a methodical deliberate song–led by a guitar (one of the only ones on What Happened To The Heart?)–which echoes and repeats an idea through flowing voice: “Everything’s more quiet than here / In my dreams” (Dreams 1:21). This is a beautiful and immensely relatable song; like many of the songs off of What Happened To The Heart?, “Dreams” is meant to reorient your thinking… and it really changed how I thought!

The only feature on What Happened To The Heart? is “My Name (feat. Ane Brun).” This song would feel right at home at a rave. It is a pounding song, driven by a beat pad, which asks listeners to get up and dance through the death discussed in the song… “My Name (feat. Ane Brun)” is a fast-paced dialogue which implores and discusses a few facts of Earth: “Nobody asks for the help” (My Name (feat. Ane Brun) 1:27). This song is also about death; some of the standout lyrics off of What Happened To The Heart? come from this song:

Somebody was given just another year

Another departure in their atmosphere

Will you forget I was here?

Will you forget I was here?

Will you forget I was here?

Will you forget I was here?

Will you forget I was here? (1:35)

What happens to a legacy? Does it matter? The last voice on “My Name (feat. Ane Brun)” off of AURORA’s What Happened To The Heart? is Ane Brun singing, “Will you forget I was here?” (0:15). Will you forget Brun was featured on What Happened To The Heart? This is an incredible auteur-to-audience contact via song; will you forget about it?

Similar themes are present within “Do You Feel?,” one of the heaviest songs off of What Happened To The Heart? Considering and re-evaluating everything that you’ve heard, AURORA sings:

Never give up this feeling

Never give up on love

You can give up on me

Never give up on love [The Earth] (Do You Feel? 0:00)

What Happened To The Heart? is just an album. You can give up on it, if you must. But The Earth is out there. Bearing in mind what you’ve heard, AURORA asks you to never give up on love, which she has established as equivalent to us and to The Earth. We are The Earth. In a raging dance song with off-the-charts percussion, “Do You Feel?” was meant to be played in a club. This track seems built to reach as many people as possible. It is an incredible song, which echoes the era of disco, transcending timelines and boundaries!

“Starvation” asks, “Why do we have to die / For us to see the light (Starvation 0:33)”? Why do we only care when we’re hurt? Why do we only care about the Earth now? AURORA seems to be asking, what will it take for us to care? “Starvation” is a song seemingly meant to spur listeners into action against technological disconnect. There are impending drums pounding throughout much of the song, giving a feeling of dread to all of “Starvation.” Despite its jovial beats and rave tones, this is not a happy song. Still, we need to listen.

Within “Starvation,” the lyric “Why do we touch the knife / When we long to feel alive?” (0:44) repeats; this imagery leads into “The Blade.” The knife within “The Blade” is not a physical prop… it is the narrator’s words: “Watch out, watch what you say / Your truth becomes your grave (The Blade 1:40). This potentially recontextualises AURORA’s presented line from “Starvation.” AURORA seems to be asking, Why do we argue when we just want to live? What Happened To The Heart? is an incredible, remarkably human album. It theorises about a perfect world without violence, but it also acknowledges that we do not live in a world like that. People argue and hate and will always care about things more than the Earth… so what can be done?

“The Essence” is the sixth song on What Happened To The Heart? This is my favourite composition on What Happened To The Heart? “The Essence” opens with a hesitant guitar, working to complete an arpeggio, but never quite getting there. Hesitating on the third of the chord, this guitar builds a hesitant and eerie atmosphere for AURORA’s vocals, which sing:

Maybe, maybe it will be alright

We all hurt sometimes, and

Maybe, maybe it will be alright

[…]

And I try, and I try

But it hurts so much

To be in touch

With the essence of us

[…]

So I’d rather not (The Essence (0:56, 1:15, 3:01)

This is an anti-idealist song off of What Happened To The Heart? We do all hurt sometimes, and it does hurt so much to be in touch with the world. I don’t believe, though, that the audience is meant to leave this album relating to the narrator of “The Essence.” AURORA appears to be offering personalized specific insight into an opinion that she once held; I believe she is asking her audience to consider the consequences of being out-of-touch with “The Essence” of us. I love this song.

In the standard order of songs from What Happened To The Heart?, “My Body is Not Mine” follows “The Blade.” The first half of “My Body is Not Mine” is a fast-paced song that forces listeners to consider their own autonomy. This track appears to ask, how much of your body do you own, and how much is declared by faith or society? How much agency do you have? “My Body Is Not Mine” is the penultimate track off of What Happened To The Heart? This song has a second part which forms a complete tonal shift. Acknowledging that we do have agency over our lives, the narrator of “My Body is Not Mine” screams, “Is this all you got? Ceasefire” (My Body Is Not Mine 3:08)! This is a stellar way to end What Happened To The Heart?! But there is one more song…

“Invisible Wounds” is the final song off What Happened To The Heart? This song is a quiet, begging ballad full of staccato beats. This track discusses a crying Earth. The Earth is dying, and we can see it if we look, but so often, individuals abstain from sight. This song appears to say that all we need now is empathy to see the invisible wounds within the world, and “We both need to / Tend to the invisible wounds (Invisible Wounds 3:30).

What Happened To The Heart? is an album begging listeners to engage with the Earth. Written by “The Earth,” subtlety is gone, and it needs to be. AURORA has always been a political artist, but now she has become a full-blown activist, using her music and profits gathered from her image to protect the planet. We need more people like Aurora Aksnes. We need to care. It’s okay to be afraid, it’s okay to hurt, but we can’t give up on love.