As covered in Thursday’s (May 5) Yellow Diamonds, Ella Mai has returned from a four-year break between albums with a batch of new cuffing anthems. Heart On My Sleeve, the singer’s sophomore LP, finds her back in a romantic bag anyone familiar with “Boo’d Up” will recognize. Much like her 2018 breakthrough single, the best tracks on Mai’s latest project are head-over-heels, nose-wide-open love songs.
What keeps these ballads feeling fresh throughout the course of the album’s 55 minutes is how dynamic the writing is on each song. With poise and passion, Mai and her co-writers put into words what would seem to be love’s most indescribable byproducts. Tracks like “Break My Heart,” “Hide,” and “A Mess” don’t even seem like love songs based on their titles alone, but it’s the way Mai and company observe what it means to leave your love unguarded, find shelter in someone else’s, and manage an imperfect romance that makes them so swoon-worthy.
While other artists have released great love songs since 2018, few artists have built a brand as synonymous with infatuation as Ella Mai’s. Read on to see the singer’s purest love lyrics throughout Heart On My Sleeve, as well as breakdowns that might otherwise make them Yellow Diamonds candidates.