How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?

I cannot even begin to guess how many songs address the calamity of a broken heart. Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? I’ll never know, but that is mostly because I’ll never make much of an attempt to find out. I am comfortable with the knowledge that there are an awful lot of songs dealing with that particular piece of subject matter, probably too many. Beyond that, my interest wanes.

Most of these maudlin efforts try to convey a message of irreparable despair,...