The guts of Del Water Gap’s excellent self-titled debut album hang in wanting, longing, reaching for love that always evades capture. But on “I Hope You Understand,” the need turns so deeply desperate; the unshakeable truth that this is not ending well has reached his core. “I had a dream you killed me,” he confesses, “bread knife to my throat.” And yet even as he bleeds out, over swooning, soaring electric guitar and synth, he wants his lover to know that they meant something wonderful to him. “Maybe I deserve it,” he decides, “it” meaning the loss, or maybe meaning the fleeting love unacknowledged. Sometimes they go hand-in-hand. —Terron Moore
