The origin story for this one is specific enough to be genuinely interesting. Hansen watched a documentary about Randy Newman, sat down at the piano immediately after, and had most of the song written within thirty minutes – the chromatic chord movements and diminished chords that define the track arriving almost fully formed. The result is a song he envisions as a number from a future musical, possibly animated: a protagonist alone on stage, having just met the girl of his dreams, singing through his terror of heartbreak while hope slowly wins out. That theatrical framing is not incidental to how the song works. It shapes every arrangement decision, from the balance of piano accompaniment against solo vocal to the playful exaggerations in the lyrics. “Afraid of Love No More” came out in May 2025, and it sits comfortably alongside Hansen’s broader catalog as another demonstration of a songwriter who takes harmonic craft seriously.
This time, Mark Andrew Hansen is showing his vulnerable side with a very 70s-inspired piano ballad. The harmonic choices here are reminiscent of classic songwriters like Freddie Mercury or Elton John – that same willingness to move through unexpected chord colours that keep the ear slightly off-balance in the best possible way, where each resolution feels both surprising and inevitable. The chromatic movement Hansen absorbed from Newman gives the song a sophistication that most contemporary pop doesn’t bother with, and the diminished chords add a theatrical tension that suits the protagonist’s emotional state perfectly. What makes it work at a human level, though, is that none of that harmonic complexity calls attention to itself – it’s all in service of the story.
Hansen recorded this at his home studio with no compression or auto-tune, which is consistent with the uncompromising production philosophy that runs through everything he makes. With over 100 million streams across Spotify and YouTube and a catalog that spans neo-classical piano to jazz to kids’ music, he operates as a genuinely self-contained artist. “Afraid of Love No More” is one of the more emotionally exposed things in that catalog – Broadway by design, confessional by instinct.