Sarah McLachlan is releasing fresh music for the first time in over ten years, and her new album Better Broken will drop on September 19 through Concord.
The video for the main song, which Lauren Wade directed, is already out, and it sets the mood for what’s coming. This album comes after her holiday record Wonderland from 2016 and her 2014 project Shine On, so it’s been a while since fans got something brand new. While making the album in Los Angeles at Sound City Studios, she teamed up with Tony Berg and Will Maclellan on production, plus musicians like Wendy Melvoin, Matt Chamberlain, Benny Bock, and Greg Leisz; Katie Gavin from Muna even joins in on “Reminds Me.”
Fans sometimes just want to hear something that makes them feel understood.
When talking about her music, McLachlan explained, “A lot of the lyrics on this record came from thinking about the world right now and asking, ‘How do we move through this landscape? How do we keep our heads above water when it feels like so much is falling apart?’ I don’t know if I have any answers, but channeling all that angst and uncertainty into the music has been so cathartic. I hope that this record provides people with some relief and release—but in the end I just want them to take whatever they need from it, and make the songs part of their own story.” Sometimes, music is like a life jacket in a stormy sea.
Here’s the tracklist for Better Broken—it’s got eleven songs:
01 Better Broken
02 Gravity
03 The Last to Go
04 Only Way Out Is Through
05 Reminds Me [ft. Katie Gavin]
06 One in a Long Line
07 Only Human
08 Long Road Home
09 Rise
10 Wilderness
11 If This Is the End…
If you’re curious about her older stuff, there’s also a review of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy by Ivy Nelson floating around somewhere online. Sometimes I wonder if Sarah ever gets tired of singing about feelings, but I guess that’s what makes her music special.
