The Art of Breaking Hearts and the Beauty in Emotional Mess
- asonginlife
- Jun 13
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 14

Celestial Skies in Focus
Celestial Skies is the indie-pop project of UK artist Chris Selman, known for pairing honest lyrics with soft, melodic textures. His 2022 debut album Songs for Blue Romantics introduced a sound built around emotion, intimacy, and the search for connection. In 2024, he returned with two EPs that explored different sides of his artistry. Walk in the Shadows leaned into heavier emotional themes, while The Gender Agenda focused on identity, gender, and personal truth. Across each release, Celestial Skies continues to create music that invites quiet reflection without losing its warmth.
A Record That Doesn’t Pretend
The Art of Breaking Hearts, released in May 2025, captures the parts of romance people often avoid talking about. It’s a collection of 11 songs that each reflect a different type of emotional entanglement. Some characters fall too quickly. Others ghost without reason. Some rely on alcohol when things get uncomfortable. Others wrestle with questions about power, beauty, or money in the middle of it all.
The album was first mentioned earlier this year around Valentine’s Day, but the actual content is far from love song territory. These tracks explore what happens when things don’t go to plan. Rather than dwell in self-pity or push for closure, Selman leaves room for discomfort. The songs don’t rush to teach lessons. They just allow things to be messy.
Songwriting That Knows When to Step Back
The album opens with Go Slow!, which also served as its lead single. It’s bright and accessible, but it holds a sense of hesitation. The lyrics question whether slowing things down really protects you from getting hurt. That sense of tension continues in Desperation Nation, which shifts into more chaotic territory. The track doesn’t glamorize the fallout. It just lets the spiral play out.
Holly Golightly stands out for its literary reference and emotional weight. It touches on how people sometimes present curated versions of themselves to protect against vulnerability. The character from Breakfast at Tiffany’s isn’t just name-dropped here. The song uses her as a lens to talk about performance and power in dating, without sounding forced or clever for the sake of it.
Silly Boy takes a softer approach but still cuts deep. It uses humor to ease into a conversation about emotional immaturity, miscommunication, and the things we regret saying when we’re not thinking clearly. It’s the kind of track you smile through the first time, then sit with a little longer after the second.
One of the most balanced moments is Sunrise Symphony, which breaks from heartbreak and focuses briefly on appreciation. It serves as a midpoint shift before the final stretch, which includes Headlights and Real Eyes. These songs strip everything back and focus on quiet emotional processing. They aren’t about resolution. They’re about pausing long enough to understand how you got there.
A Quiet Album with Something to Say
The Art of Breaking Hearts doesn’t shout. It doesn’t sell a fantasy or promise that time heals everything. It just reflects back the kinds of conversations and situations many people have lived through. Celestial Skies doesn’t overstep or ask for attention. He trusts that the listener will connect with what’s there, and that’s what gives the record its strength.
For anyone who has felt out of sync, misunderstood, or unsure of where things went wrong, this album feels like someone quietly saying, “Yeah, I’ve been there too.” And sometimes that’s exactly what we need.
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