Mercedes Thorne—aka Australian singer-songwriter merci, mercy—has been sitting on the title of her first album for years. “I wanted to get that phrase tattooed on my chest as a teenager because I took everything to heart and I’d always be crying,” she tells Apple Music. “So I thought it would be the perfect title for my debut album.” Fittingly, the album opens with the line “I got hobbies, like crying on my couch”, setting the tone for a record that balances Thorne’s deeply personal experiences with mental health and self-worth with her upbeat, sunshine-laced indie pop. On “Cigarettes in the Dark” she laments, “You only love me when I don’t”; the swooning, melody-drenched “Unrecognisable” considers that her loved ones would be better off if she no longer existed. Happily, Thorne hasn’t lost sight of the light, as evidenced by the conversation she had with her partner that inspired the upbeat “The Word Love” (“If I was a word, what word would I be?/Without hesitating you said the word ‘love’”). “I’ve definitely been the most vulnerable I’ve ever been on some of the tracks,” says the singer. “I’m nervous how people will react to those songs, but I hope it helps them like it helped me to write them.” There is also a sense of triumph to the record, a celebration that it exists despite the nagging voices of the naysayers (“Am I fucking crazy to think that I can make it?” sings Thorne on “Jealousy”). “It means the world to me that I can say F-U to everyone who said I couldn’t do music because it wasn’t a realistic dream,” she says. Here, Thorne breaks down Don’t Take It to Heart, track by track. “Inside Out” “I saw a video and a guy was like, ‘Women don’t have hobbies.’ And I was like, you know what? I actually do have hobbies, and crying on the couch is one of them, thank you very much.” “Cigarettes in the Dark” “‘I hadn’t written a heartbreak F-U song about a boy before, so I was like, ‘Let me try something new.’ Obviously I had to have the word ‘cigarettes’ in it, because I just love that word. I love singing that word, and I love smoking.” “Unrecognisable” “It is very sad. It’s about wanting to not exist anymore. You think that because you’re suffering from mental illness, it impacts everyone around you, and you think they would be better off if you weren’t around because then they wouldn’t have to see someone they love suffer. But in reality they would all fall apart because you’re the highlight of their lives.” “The Word Love” “It’s about my boyfriend having my self-love for me. I don’t have it, but he has it for me. So then I’m like, ‘If he thinks I’m literally the word “love”, maybe I should love myself too.’” “Unsaid” “I was obsessed—still am—with Post Malone. As a teen I would listen to him on repeat, so this is like my ode musically to Post Malone and how he helped me through some dark times.” “Jealousy” “It’s about being jealous of other artists. There are so many incredible artists out there and they can dance and sing and speak well in interviews, and I was like, ‘I can’t do any of that except write a good lyric!’ I was really angry and jealous and like, why can’t I be like that?” “I Bet She’s Really Nice” “When you don’t love yourself, you can’t imagine why somebody else would. So to my partner I’d be like, ‘You don’t actually love me and you just want to go back to your ex,’ and he’s like, ‘What? Hello? I treat you like a princess, what do you mean?’ We’ve been together five years and I wrote this last year. So he was like, ‘Finally! Now will you never bring up my ex ever again?’ We’ll see.” “Angel” “I made it with Robby De Sa. We went into the studio and were like, let’s just write an easy-listening banger that’s made for TikTok almost. It definitely took a left turn. [It’s about] how annoying it is being addicted to literally anything you come in contact with.” “Shrine” “I wanted to write a song where you couldn’t tell it was me singing about my depression. ’Cause I feel like all my songs are about my depression, so maybe people are getting bored. So I thought I would trick them, and they’d think it’s about another person, but it’s actually about my depression. But that means people can listen to it thinking it’s about a shitty person and they can feel better after listening to it. ’Cause shit people are everywhere.” “Hold on You” “I liked a boy and he didn’t like me. We kissed, but then he wouldn’t speak to me. And I was 16 and I wrote a song about it. I was like, ‘Why am I so infatuated with this boy that is just nothing special?’ And it really helped me detach myself from him.” “One of a Kind” “I wanted it to sound like someone having their foot on your chest and you can’t speak. You’re trying to get words out but you feel like someone’s trying to stop you. It’s aimed at one person in particular; it’s something pretty traumatic that happened to me. And it’s one of the main reasons why I’m so depressed and anxious as an adult, and have always been. Every time I listen to it now I cry because I’m like, ‘Look at what I’ve achieved.’ Even though I’ve been through something awful, I’m so lucky that I’m loved and I’m able to have a relationship and friendships.” “Whispers” “I wrote the first bit at home on my couch after I drank my favourite Boss coffee, Vanilla Latte. I love it so much I wanted to write a song dedicated to it. But then it ended up turning into a song about how obsessed I am with my boyfriend. Sometimes I’ll just sit in the corner and look at him and be like, ‘He’s just so handsome and so kind!’” “Port Royal (a love story)” “The pouch that my boyfriend used to smoke was Port Royal, rum and wine. And in that song I talk about him rolling up a cigarette and sharing it with me. It’s quite hopeful and really sweet. It goes through a journey of meeting someone and then you get into a fight, and then you break up, and then you get back together ’cause you’re like, ‘You’re where my home is at. And wherever you are I want to be, even if it means we’re homeless on the street. You make me feel good in this world.’”