On “The Key to My Door,” Singer-Songwriter Tori Nance Proves She’s the Local Queen of the Breakup Song

The latest from Northeast Florida singer-songwriter Tori Nance aligns with her self-professed title of “the Queen of Breakup Songs.”

Leaning into an indie-adult-album-alternative sound, “The Key to My Door” is an acrimonious anthem that is a minor-key delight for codependency and flat-out lovelorn listeners. Over the course of the song’s three and a half minutes, Nance doesn’t roll too far outside the wheelhouse of jangly-downer music: strumming acoustic guitar, piano and minimal bass-and-drum rhythm with Nance’s lyrics that vacillate between accusatory and self-condemnation.

“I don’t know how to set a boundary / I don’t want you to be without me,” sings Nance, with a sincerely defeated delivery. Known primarily as a one-person/looper-style performer, Nance has now fleshed out her live shows with a band, and has appeared on local television and is a regular presence in the local indie club scene. If well-crafted and poetically somber music is your target sound, Tori Nance and “The Key to My Door” surely hits a bullseye. 

• Stream “The Key to My Door”

You can hear new music from Tori Nance, as well as other local, regional, national and international artists on our music discovery station The Independent 89.9 HD4. And you can follow our Fresh Squeeze playlist on Spotify to stream all the best new music, updated every month.