Sarah McLachlan was one of the biggest and most consequential singer-songwriters of the '90s, but her legacy has been a bit overshadowed by the famously sad ASPCA ads that she used to do, the ones with her song "Angel." Those things are joke magnets, and McLachlan has been a good sport about the phenomenon. Just last month, she parodied those ads when she appeared on the Simpsons season finale, singing about Itchy and Scratchy. For a while now, McLachlan has been working to maintain that legacy; she did a 30th-anniversary tour for her album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy last year. But now, she's coming back with new music, announcing her first new album in a long time.
It's been just over a decade since Sarah McLachlan released her last proper studio LP, 2014's Shine On. (She also came out with Wonderland in 2016, but that's a Christmas album, and Christmas albums are really their own little category.) Later this year, McLachlan will end that long drought, coming back with her new full-length Better Broken. It's the first time since 1991 that McLachlan has made an album without her longtime producer Pierre Marchand. Instead, she recorded the LP with Phoebe Bridgers collaborators Tony Berg and Will Maclellan. Instrumentalists on the record include ex-Prince & The Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin, former Bob Dylan/David Bowie drummer Matt Chamberlain, pedal steel ace Greg Leisz, and prolific session player Benny Bock. One song is a duet with MUNA's Katie Gavin. Here's what McLachlan has to say for herself:
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.
Today, McLachlan shares the new album's title track. As someone who wasn't exactly paying active attention to McLachlan's last few records, this thing takes me back. McLachlan's voice is warm and distinct and comforting, and she sounds like nobody else, but it's not just that. Even while working with new collaborators, McLachlan brings back the rich, textured smoothed-out alt-rock sound of her early days -- quietly funky guitar action, booming trip-hop drums, lush and emotional arrangement. It's really nice! Below, check out the new LP's tracklist and the Lauren Wade-directed "Better Broken" video.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Better Broken"
02 "Gravity"
03 "The Last To Go"
04 "Only Way Out Is Through"
05 "Reminds Me" (feat. 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..."
Better Broken is out 9/19 on Concord. Read our We've Got A File On You interview with Sarah McLachlan here.
