soft-light indie ache, restless rhythms, and a songwriter unafraid to stand inside the truth

i can’t love away your hurt by matthew stenroos opens like a private moment you were never meant to hear, a quiet breath before the confession. there is a deep tenderness in the way it unfolds, shaped by a decade of dormancy, rediscovered on an old hard drive and revived when stenroos felt ready to feel it again. that history hums through the song. it sounds lived in, waited for.

his voice, mournful and warm, pulls between wanting closeness and fearing what that intimacy might uncover. his delivery carries the imprint of his past, from sacred choral roots to classical piano to the late-night hum of indie and ambient influences. it feels devotional in places, experimental in others, but always honest. the electric piano smooths the edges, wrapping the track in a soft glow, while the surprisingly brisk 5/4 pulse adds a quiet tension, a heartbeat slightly out of step.

stenroos’s story deepens the emotion. raised inside strict religion in ohio, later drawn to grunge, prog and minimalism, then carving out an outsider voice in brooklyn, he writes at the edge of different worlds. that blend of the sacred, the searching and the self-made gives the song its quiet gravity.

i can’t love away your hurt does not try to fix anything. it simply sits with the feeling, patient and human, and lets the truth be enough.

thank u for making this matthew stenroos 🌿