She could have called it “Great Grief,” but that would have been immodest. Sara Bareilles‘ “Good Grief,” her first new studio album in seven years, is one of the year’s finest achievements from a singer-songwriter… and its purely musical delights are such that you might feel that way about it even if you haven’t been through some shit, as they say. If you have, all the better to relate to the record and its sometimes somber, sometimes playful meditations on a whole catalog of grief (and grievances): losing best friends to death at too early an age, dealing with fertility struggles, running to and away from the precipice of love, eroding women’s rights, mental health issues, and the challenges of continuing to believe in the promise of America.
Variety had an in-depth conversation with Bareilles about the new album and many of the tough or inspiring issues related to it — along with touching on a recently released documentary film that captures some of the making of the record, “Sara Bareilles: Good Grief,” and her first real tour of the 2020s, which has just gotten underway and includes dates Sept. 18-19 at Radio City Music Hall and Oct. 12-14 at L.A.’s Dolby Theatre. (Scroll down to see a full list of tour dates.) You’ve gone a pretty long time between solo albums now. Of course you’ve had “Girls5Eva” and composing your next stage musical (“The Interestings”) and plenty of other things occupying yout time. Does it feel any different putting this one out into the world now than in times past?
It’s been a minute since I’ve done this. … But I feel pretty peaceful with the “it takes the time it takes” kind of method around this part of my life. I tend towards a pretty hefty amount of time between records anyway. It takes me a long time to have something else to say.
It’s been seven years since my last record, and hopefully it was somewhat worth the wait. I was writing about this this morning; I journal every morning. I found so much catharsis and healing in the making of this record, just going through this period of time with the loss of friends and just the hardships that have happened over the last handful of years in my own personal journey.
I felt so grateful to get to put some of those experiences somewhere. So it feels like the timing is right on time, for me personally. I’m hoping it lands for the audience in that way as well.
There are “mature themes” on this record. A lot of your audience has sort of grown up with you and dealt with at least some of these same things you’re writing about. Do you suppose you have to have a certain amount of life experience to relate to an album like this?
Extract — continue reading at the source.
