One of pop music's most important roles has always been to express the vicious intensity of heartbreak, and Emily Hearn's "Volcano" serves this function well. "The song is so raw and so sad," she tells Billboard. "It's about that desperation when you lose the one you love and you hit rock bottom." Today Billboard is exclusively premiering the video for the towering ballad.
Hearn starts "Volcano" with only a piano, and then constructs a sturdy exterior around that shell, borrowing some lessons from '60s soul. Strings sweep in during the hook, and the track's flow is briefly destabilized by jarring intrusions of electric guitar. "Sometimes love just ain't enough," she sings. "Baby we're ashes and smoke/ like a volcano gone cold."