Albums
There Goes My Heart
2026
Release Date: 2026
By Pitchfork
Reviewed February 8, 2026
The “Boo’d Up” singer tries to play her cards close to the chest on the opening track from her new album, Do You Still Love Me?
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.