Amy Allen can craft a gripping love song with the subtlest shades of emotion, making her one of the most in-demand songwriters since the late 2010s. Her pop sensibility helped catapult Sabrina Carpenter into the stratosphere (“Espresso”), pushed Halsey to her most vulnerable edge (“Without Me”), and enhanced the groovy, sexy confidence of former teen stars Selena Gomez, Harry Styles, and Niall Horan. With sharp, sassy pop-rock cuts like “Difficult,” she’s also proving to be a powerhouse all on her own. “Being a songwriter can be quite an emotional roller coaster,” she tells Apple Music. “I joke with my friends that it means some days you leave a session feeling like you’re the best writer in the world, and other days you drive home feeling like you’re a fraud and will never remember how to write a good song ever again. I think the proudest moments in my career are when someone hears a song I’ve written and tells me how much it resonated with them. Those moments make all the perseverance and thousands of unheard songs worth every second.”