Songfacts®:

• Bluesy, slow-burning and faintly smoke-stained around the edges, "Broken" is a heartache song that refuses the usual repair kit.
  
  You and me in the dark, just keep holding me tight
  While I'm falling apart
  
  Langley offers her partner a concrete way to help that demands nothing except presence; don't fix, don't speak, just hold on.
• Ella Langley wrote "Broken" with Joybeth Taylor, Austin Goodloe, and Laura Veltz.
  
  Joybeth Taylor is Langley's close friend and one of her most frequent creative collaborators. This song continues a partnership that goes back to Langley's debut album, Hungover, where she co-wrote six tracks.
  
  Austin Goodloe pulls double duty here as both co-writer and background vocalist. He previously teamed up with Joybeth Taylor to co-pen Corey Kent's dark, sardonic 2023 hit "Something's Gonna Kill Me."
  
  Laura Veltz is a notable addition to the writing room here. A highly decorated Nashville songwriter, Veltz has co-written major hits for the likes of Dan + Shay ("Speechless") and Maren Morris ("The Bones").
• "Broken" is track 11 on Langley's sophomore album, Dandelion, which she described as the record where she wanted fans to truly understand who she is.
  
  It sits in interesting company within the album. Where "Loving Life Again" documents the aftermath of Langley's 2025 emotional breakdown - the recovery, the faith, the return home - "Broken" captures the rawer, mid-crisis moment: the need to be allowed to fall apart without pressure to perform strength. Together the two tracks form a kind of emotional arc.