Wallowing in heartache is a dangerous game. Carly Pearce warns as much with her new song “if looks could kill,” a cut from the deluxe reissue of 2024’s hummingbird. Thorny strings poke the fabric of the melody, contrasting against Pearce’s tangy and smooth vocal tricks. Despite the misery pounding in her chest, she can’t help but gaze – gaze at her ex and his new lover. It more than hurts. It crushes, and she may never recover.
“If looks could kill, I’d be pushing up daisies / Watching you over there calling her baby,” she sings with a quiver in her voice. She nearly collapses but pushes through to the next razor-sharp lyric. “Putting on a show to see like you know looking at you’s killing me.”
The delicate, yet alarmingly pulverizing, ballad weaves in and out of the heartstrings. It nestles and clutches down to the soul. “Has anyone else been absolutely gutted watching someone that was once your whole world be someone else’s?” Pearce writes on Instagram. “I wrote this song about that exact feeling.”
Listen to “if looks could kill” below.
Photo by Allister Ann
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