Faded Heart | BØRNS


Borns, photo by James Kelly

Lily Stotz

Michigan native Garrett Borns, also known as Børns, returns with his second album Blue Madonna, which dropped January 12, 2018. His sound is consistently a mixture of catchy pop with an edge of mystery and quirkiness that sets him apart — even mystifying pop-legend Prince in 2015 who said, “I like that you can’t tell what it’s inspired by,” in regards to his debut album Dopamine, which was released in 2015.

Blue Madonna, still heavily influenced by the ‘70s glam-rock feeling that was so prevalent in Dopamine, reaches a bit further into space this time with lyrics inspired by old science fiction magazines and instruments that emit the same extraterrestrial vibes such as the space-age theremin solo in the song “Supernatural.”

With his flamboyant, gender-bending style and a falsetto that reaches as “high as the pretty stars,” Børns reinvents what modern pop can be with a spacey, yet upbeat melody and the undeniably catchy lyrics in “Faded Heart,” the first single released off the new album. He builds on the album’s theme as he expresses human vulnerability by pleading to the universe not to “break my faded heart.”