‘Bleeding Heart’ is a life-affirming song about living with social anxiety and overcoming it. The song tells the story of a lonely person (Regina’s subject, you the listener) who is seeking affection and belonging, but is held back by their anxiety. It is written in second person, addressing the listener as the subject.

Spektor highlights the progression of time and how long it can take to overcome mental illness and achieve happiness by writing each verse in a different tense. The bouncy chorus is interspersed to remind the listener not to worry, calling back to Spektor’s anti-folk style of repeating, extending, and contracting words such as in “Eet” and “Us.”

Synth-fueled peppy music set to the bassy undertones of a prominent heartbeat give way to an aggressive rock instrumentation during the middle eight, and finally a piano-led outro.

The simple instrumentation closes out the song by highlighting Spektor’s emotional and heartfelt vocals and reinforcing the message that, although the journey may be difficult, it’s never too late to heal.

This image contains an anatomical heart surrounded by trails of the ‘bleeding heart’ flower. Credit to Cassie Meder.