On her third album, Love and Fortune, the Australian singer has captured the dull ache of being rejected by a friend – and how she fell in love with music again
Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email
S
tella Donnelly didn’t want to write songs about a friend who broke her heart. But any time the Welsh-Australian singer-songwriter tried to channel anything else into her lyrics, the hurt was always there on the surface.
We have a language for coping with romantic heartbreak, learned from movies and songs – but there are fewer mirrors in art for coping with the end of platonic bonds. On her third album, Love and Fortune, Donnelly has captured the dull ache of being rejected by a friend who once knew her best of all. It might become the record ghosted friends turn to when they find a person they knew intimately for years no longer wants to hear from them.
