A Warm Review of Michael Stolar’s ‘What’s Life Without a Little Heartbreak?’

by: Calli Ferguson

You know that kind of loud, cathartic laughter that feels dangerously close to tears? The one where you’re on the brink of crashing out, but you crack a joke instead. That’s kind of what Michael Stolar’s debut album, What’s Life Without a Little Heartbreak?, feels like.

Michael Stolar is an independent NYC artist whose jammable pop-rock is loaded with early 2000s nostalgia. His new 12-track debut album (out May 15) takes listeners on a ride through the chaos of love and heartbreak — devastating, yes, but also the kinds of big emotions that make for a life well lived.

The sound of this high-energy album is carried by electric guitars, some poppy synths, and production elements that serve to build on Stolar’s witty, narrative songwriting. His aching rock vocals float effortlessly in and out of falsetto, wearing every emotion. When it all comes together, the listen is fun, theatrical, and anthemic.

The project does feel like a chronological listen, along a storyline of love and loss. In fact, the opening track, “Get to Know You”, gives us the dizzy and intoxicating yearning of a new crush. It’s flirty and exciting, though, a bit foreboding with “heartbreak” written right into the album title. Then we get something lusty in “Masculine/Feminine”that feels spiritually adjacent to something off The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. It’s not until track three, “Outside”, that we start to feel the central relationship slipping through our fingers, and by “Pretend It Isn’t Over”, we’re onto bargaining.

But while we do seem to move through a narrative with Stolar on this album, there is no suggestion that healing from a breakup is a linear experience. Instead, these songs make room for the ebbs and flows of it all. In What’s Life Without a Little Heartbreak?, grief isn’t a simple five-step road map, and the messiness of healing seems to be celebrated. “Forgiven and Forgotten” and “Give It Time - I Might Not” do this with a cheekiness and relatable wink. Both tracks sit in the sticky nuances of healing, down to false summits of a break-up: the fleeting feeling of being “over it” as you actually make your way through. Or the way hope has a way of chasing you.

For me, the project’s strengths were really on display with “How We Say Goodbye”, the last in the album’s rollout of singles. It has a lot of the juicy details one might crave from a pop-rock anthem, circling an earworm chorus brought to life with its bright electric guitar riff. It even comes complete with its own spoken-over-the-phone interlude akin to the beloved “so he calls me up…” moment in Swift’s “We Are Never Getting Back Together”.

Clearly, nostalgia is on the table here in generous portions, but Stolar’s project puts a fresh perspective on it. Just when you’re thinking about your days jamming out to The Script in the car, you’ll get this sparkly kind of R&B instrumental that brings in the artist’s SZA influences. Where it’s intentional and specific in tone, sound, and story, the project also offers many angles. There is anger and hope. Journeys through grief, acceptance, and back again. But what never fluctuates is the energy you get on these tracks. And with that energy, Stolar offers a place to sing and dance through the most devastating parts of heartbreak.

Because it’s true: Good old-fashioned, terrible heartbreak is part of a journey well spent. Plus— great material for a debut album. With delicious hooks for days and painfully relatable songwriting, the album cheekily accomplishes asking its central question: what’s life without a little heartbreak?

💿 stream 'What's LIfe without a little heartbreak?' where you listen 
📻 and keep up with MICHAEL STOLAR on Instagram, TikTok, and his Website

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