Austin-based dreampop siren Molly Burch spins shoegaze-inflected rhythms that call back to her favorite musical influences. She returns with Heart of Gold, a song that uses her skillful deployment of emotion to paint heartache as a silver lining. The song is the third single released from her upcoming record Romantic Images, an album that’s shaping up to be a dance party in the name of crying the pain away.

Heart of Gold employs some of Burch’s most notable strengths to her advantage. She cites Nina Simone and Billie Holiday as vocal inspirations in her career, and flits off vocal inflections derived from an appreciation for jazz and motown sensibilities. Her quick stutters are sneaky, only revealing themselves when you take a moment to listen back. They chip away at the self-serious bubble this kind of heartbreak anthem is familiar with.

Further building the song’s sense of humor, Burch laments her encounters with love beyond her own relationship experiences. “I give you advice for love but I hate it / Never wanna know what comes of it,” sounds like a confession from a burnt-out bar hound. She’s been around the block, but now, she’s tired of traveling in circles.

Burch’s voice lifts to a breathy lilt in the chorus as she pleads with her lover to make things right. “All I ever wanted was your love / I treat it like my job,” escapes her lips in a delicate cry that pleads for more attention. Her heart of gold beams with affection but clearly hasn’t received what it needs in return.

A doe-eyed, gentle demeanor on full display in the song’s music video compounds the dreamlike daze. In the clip, Burch walks aimlessly through the Hill Country with a couple of goat kids as she pines over a man who’s having a blast chopping wood. It’s a fun take on the idea that her romantic interest never notices her affections—the guy is enjoying himself so much that it seems he might never break away from his work. That space is where Burch’s music lives most comfortably: when all that seems lost presents itself as a joke right before your eyes. Her whit and her sharp tongue ensure that coming back for more is worth it, again and again.