Song Review: “Those Whose Love Is Missing” by Sun V Set
Fifty-five days into 2025. Thirty-seven reported mass shootings. All in the name of an enshrined right, drafted in response to a threat that its fiercest defenders fail to recognize, even as it stands before them, crowning itself king. Most of these shootings barely made the news. Maybe a brief mention on the front page, quickly overshadowed by feel-good distractions and hollow political coverage in the days that followed. It’s no wonder we’ve become numb to these stories. Too many locations to remember. Too many names to recite. Too many rounds of ammunition to count. Too many gallons of blood to measure.
Despite that, some tragedies continue to resonate, their weight undiminished by time. Sandy Hook. Pulse nightclub. Emanuel African Methodist. Columbine. Virginia Tech. And, of course, Uvalde, an especially egregious example where the nation watched, in real-time, as “to protect and serve” was revealed as hollow rhetoric rather than the call to action it should be. Just four years earlier, at Parkland, a lone school resource officer’s inaction was labelled child neglect and culpable negligence in legal proceedings. In Uvalde, it was an entire police force paralyzed by decades of eroded training and the relentless conditioning that gun violence is an inevitability, something to be met with thoughts and prayers rather than decisive action. Sandy Hook in 2011 was a sobering realization that no one was safe from the gun epidemic in the country. Uvalde was the shocking revelation that we are truly powerless to stop it.
Still, that doesn’t diminish the impact of the tragedy or make us numb against it. It won’t be forgotten. It can’t be forgotten. And unlike hollow slogans plastered across police cars, this isn’t empty rhetoric. It is a tangible reality, one that continues to manifest in storytelling and art. Documentaries like Print It Black in 2024 and Uvalde Mom in 2025 keep the topic fresh in people’s minds, ensuring the truth isn’t buried behind apathy. Music too carries the grief onward, most recently in “Those Whose Love Is Missing,” the new affecting single from progressive folk act Sun V Set.
“Why oh why have our babies died,” Linnea Morgan aches in the opening line, her voice carrying over a tender guitar melody. It’s the one question that should spur action, yet time and time again, it earns nothing more than empty platitudes. But aching isn’t the song’s defining force. Instead, Morgan quickly shifts tone, confronting the brutality of the event with stark, unflinching language that exposes the epidemic for what it truly is: “A poisoned arrow splits into marrow / And spills out our insides.” No matter where one stands on the 2nd Amendment, these words should resonate for that’s all it amounts to in moments like these. A nation’s youth, stolen for senseless destruction. An avoidable tragedy, sanctioned by inaction and indifference.
Morgan doesn’t shy away from forcing us deeper into this grim reality, laying bare both the horrific act itself (“Find no meaning to a child bleeding”) and the crushing weight of its aftermath (“Mothers eat the deepest darkest grief”). Alongside Curt Sydnor’s organ and synth work, the song drifts through the air like wispy ether, one that stubbornly refuses to dissolve into the atmosphere, just as this sorrow should refuse to fade from public consciousness. This radiates a nebulous force, persistent and compelling despite its evanescence like a lingering thought the mind can never escape.
The song’s true brilliance lies in how Morgan balances its dulcet, comforting sound with stark reflections on hopelessness and loss. Her voice remains gentle, even as her words carve out an uncompromising indictment of a system that allows these horrors to persist. Each lyric is tethered to the unbearable pain–the senseless loss of children, the unimaginable grief of parents, and the deep scars left on a community.
But while it mourns, “Those Whose Love Is Missing” is not just a lament. It is a protest. Morgan’s pointed lyricism dismantles the hollow excuses of those who continue to idolize firearms, exposing a society more eager to blame individuals than to confront the systemic failures that enable these atrocities. With each haunting refrain, the song makes its stance clear: these tragedies are not isolated. They are not unfortunate coincidences. They are the inevitable result of a nation unwilling to change.
A tipping point is inevitable though, despite the reluctance of many. Sooner or later, the void left by all this missing love will demand to be reckoned with, lest we all sink into its grievous depths. Until then, we need more songs like “Those Whose Love Is Missing” to remind us of what’s been lost, anchor us in the enduring pain, and lead us toward change. Change that should have come generations ago, but one that we will embrace when it finally arrives. Until then, Sun V Set’s powerful statement will keep our minds and hearts fixed on the path to change, no matter what.
“Those Whose Love Is Missing” is available now on all streaming platforms. For future releases and updates from Sun V Set, make usre to follow them on social media.
