Can you ever get over the death of your lover?

Overcoming the grief seems like an impossible task, but, at the same time, moving on seems insensitive to the person you once shared your life with.

In “Did You Hear about Mercy?”, British singer-songwriter Oliver Proudfoot stoically depicts the loneliness and despair that accompanies the loss of your beloved.

Proudfoot’s mellifluous fingerpicking riff infuses a sweet-sounding melody into a song heavy with woe. This punchy, almost percussive riff lends a nice, pacy rhythm to the track.  

I heard mercy, it died on the wind

Must have been when the morning frost came creeping in

The death of mercy here points to a newfound pessimism in his world, where mornings bring the remembrance of death and the frost of anguish.

Did you hear we were lovers?

But that was long ago

You know why I still pray,

pray for her soul.

Time doesn’t automatically harden your heart to pain. But Proudfoot seems to have difficulty expressing this pain; the implicit sadness in his words doesn’t fully come through in his voice as he sings with a resigned, cynical tone.

Time’s been moving down the steady hill

You know there’s nothing you can do to make it stand still

When your loved one passes, it seems insensitive of time to keep running, indifferent to her death. The impassive sun rises and sets, the callous cars pass by, and your body shakes with sorrow. You feel like life should pause for a second.

Did you ever see your life turn out this way?

You know I always knew how mine,

how mine was gonna play

Proudfoot’s pessimism comes through again in these lyrics; he always believed any sliver of happiness he held would eventually be snatched away.

Round, round the years, they never end –

perpetual as hell when friendship ain’t your friend,

but I’m happy knowing you,

you doing alright.

We tend to think about the darkest things when we’re alone. When you don’t have people around you for support, your mind preys on your solitude and tortures you for a seeming eternity.  

But what makes this song so compelling is its conversational style.

The frequent use of the word “you” makes it feel like he’s communicating his heartache directly to you, which makes it more intimate and, consequently, makes you sympathetic to Proudfoot’s plight.

“Did You Hear about Mercy?” is heavy, but it’s such a beautiful expression of sorrow.

At the end of the song, Proudfoot reverts back to the first verse followed by the same screechy ambient strain that started the track. This arrangement suggests that while he occasionally has little moments of contentment, the cycle of grief never ends.  

Time, it seems, does not heal all wounds.