London R&B singer Ella Mai broke out in 2018 with the sleeper hit “Boo’d Up,” which employed its chorus, mimicking a heartbeat, to channel the kind of easygoing romance that puts a skip in your step. “There Goes My Heart,” a highlight from her new album, Do You Still Love Me?, captures the more demanding somatic rhythms of a love that brings your defenses crashing down. The song begins as a familiar Mustard piano-and-fingersnaps ballad, as Mai flip-flops between icing her lover out and wanting to hold him close. This sort of muted, adult-contemporary introspection is hardly out of Mai’s comfort zone, but then a drum fill crashes into the mix and sends the song momentarily reeling, hinting at a pent-up passion she desperately wants to contain. Mai sings in a fake-aloof tone about not wanting to get her hopes up, but the beat’s rickety construction—808s, snaps, live drums, and an urgently ticking clock—undermines her facade. “Don’t look, don’t touch/That’s the last thing that I wanna do,” she falsely insists; as her trembling high notes arc into the empty space between them, you can hear her avoidance and self-denial start to crumble. “Captured my heart, you win,” she eventually sings, resigned to the chemistry that was always there.
