Since the late 1990s, Sarah McLachlan\u2019s music has gradually evolved from alt-pop to adult-pop, and Better Broken, the singer-songwriter\u2019s first album of original material in over a decade, leans even further into easy listening. It\u2019s also, notably, McLachlan\u2019s first album since her 1989 debut, Touch, without longtime collaborator Pierre Marchand. <\/p>\n
The album\u2019s understated title track is reminiscent of turn-of-the-century radio pop like Dido\u2019s \u201cThank You,\u201d and the creak of upright bass, quiet patter of drum brushes, and intermittent whoosh of synths on the lushly atmospheric \u201cLong Road Home\u201d evoke Marchand\u2019s textured soundscapes. But too much of Better Broken is straightforward and heavy-eyed; a French horn solo on \u201cThe Last to Go\u201d and the Beatles-esque cello climax of \u201cOnly Way Out Is Through\u201d lend some much-needed sonic interest to otherwise workmanlike arrangements. <\/p>\n
McLachlan references her rage and fury throughout the album, at times unconvincingly. The \u201cfuck\u201d she drops on \u201cOne in a Long Line,\u201d a feminist anthem on which she declares herself a \u201clivewire,\u201d feels unearned. And when she attempts to find a silver lining in the state of our politics on \u201cRise,\u201d it comes off as pollyannaish: \u201cThis time is gonna be different\/I heard it on the news,\u201d she sings earnestly. The album\u2019s closing track, \u201cIf This Is the End\u2026,\u201d is less literal, drawing on traditional English folk tropes to grapple with humanity\u2019s fate: \u201cSo we drink to the Earth that will bury our apathy\/Swallow us, sinew and bone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even more potent is \u201cGravity,\u201d a piano ballad in the vein of McLachlan\u2019s 1998 hit \u201cAngel\u201d that bluntly reckons with the singer\u2019s volatile relationship with her daughter: \u201cIt\u2019s hard, the way you look at me\/With a rage I cannot place.\u201d The song\u2019s elegiac opening line\u2014\u201cYours is an island of wild weeds and lush, tangled ground\/Unbridled energy, all possibility\u201d\u2014is a reminder that McLachlan isn\u2019t just a consummate tugger of heartstrings, but one of pop\u2019s foremost poets. <\/p>\n
Score:\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0Label: Concord \u00a0Release Date: September 19, 2025 \u00a0Buy: Amazon<\/a> Since 2001, we’ve brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we\u2019re committed to keeping our content free and accessible\u2014meaning no paywalls or fees.<\/p>\n If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon<\/a> or making a donation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the late 1990s, Sarah McLachlan\u2019s music has gradually evolved from alt-pop to adult-pop, and Better Broken, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-35633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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