The Stockholm-born songwriter Vera Carlbom presents her artist project Dandelion with a debut album about grief before it has become manageable. The first part of My Sadness Needs Your Full Attention is released on October 30 via EMI Sweden / Universal Music Nordics, with the focus track “Heavy Hearts Club” at the forefront.
The opening part contains four songs: “Heavy Hearts Club,” “Little Too Much,” “Scissors,” and “ONONON.” The latter two have already been released as singles. Together, the songs form the album’s first emotional chapter, which takes place before reflection has transformed the pain into a lesson or a sense of closure.
Dandelion describes the first record as a portrait of grief in its immediate, defiant form: intense, romantic, sometimes hard to endure, and not yet something the narrator is trying to get past. The songs remain in the feeling instead of quickly seeking a solution. In this way, the record provides space for the need to be understood, while still being in the middle of the experience.
A song about holding on when something is lost
At the center of the release is “Heavy Hearts Club,” which follows a relationship as it begins to slip away. The song’s perspective is caught between the realization that the bonds are about to break and the desire to hold on to them a little longer. Heartbreak is not depicted as a problem that can always be solved; instead, the song explores how one can continue living in the midst of it.
Dandelion produced the song together with Wille Enblad and Sebastian Meyer. The album was recorded at Traxton Studios in Stockholm, grounding the first chapter in the city where Carlbom was born and grew up. On the four songs, the emphasis is on allowing each piece to have its own emotional space, rather than treating the album’s grief as a single clearly defined state of mind.
The project is planned as a two-part release, with the second half expected in spring 2027. The division allows the songs to establish their own expressions and also frames the work as a broader emotional arc. The first record begins where grief is still immediate; the album’s larger story is intended to stretch beyond the initial state.
This freedom is significant for Carlbom, whose career has encompassed extensive songwriting for other artists. Under the name Vera Carlbom, she has written songs for or worked with Bebe Rexha, Katy Perry, SOFI TUKKER, Griff, UPSAHL, Dylan, and Dillon Francis. Her collaborators also include producers and songwriters such as Max Martin, The Struts, Johan Carlsson, Vincent Pontare, Salem Al Fakir, and Jocke Åhlund. Dandelion gives her songwriting instincts direct outlet in a project shaped around her own perspective.
Carlbom divides her time between Stockholm and Los Angeles. The name Dandelion connects to the Swedish term “maskrosbarn,” which is rendered in English as “dandelion child”: a person who manages to grow despite difficult circumstances. That idea runs alongside the project’s interest in heartbreak, identity, and belonging, without reducing difficult feelings to a story of triumph.
The first part of My Sadness Needs Your Full Attention consists of four concentrated glimpses into that world. “Heavy Hearts Club” sets the tone, while “Little Too Much,” “Scissors,” and “ONONON” complete a first record where contradictions remain unresolved. The album’s underlying gesture is not a promise of recovery, but an invitation to pause in the feeling before deciding what happens next.
