Sarah McLachlan
Better Broken
Album · Singer/Songwriter · 2025 · Concord Records
Sarah McLachlan’s first album of originals in 11 years fortuitously arrives in the same month as the premiere of Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, a documentary that celebrates the trailblazing legacy of her all-women festival. And in many respects, Better Broken serves the same function in 2025 as Lilith Fair did in the ’90s, by providing a safe space for fans to gather and wallow in all the feels. With boygenius producer Tony Berg behind the boards, Better Broken sees McLachlan effortlessly integrate herself into a contemporary singer-songwriter landscape she helped create, with the title track reintroducing us to the folk-schooled storytelling, trip-hoppy textures, and hair-raising vocal turns that made her an adult-alternative icon.
As ever, McLachlan masterfully distills relationships to the most intimate details (“I want to feel the shiver/Your fingers writing poetry on my skin,” she sings on the dustbowl devotional “Long Road Home”), while delving into their messy aftermaths with unflinching resolve: The post-breakup piano ballad “Wilderness” just might be the most elegant “fuck you” to an ex ever written.
But while its songs take the form of deeply personal heart-to-heart conversations, Better Broken is very much tuned into the socio-political tumult weighing on all our lives—the tender piano serenade “Only Human” is the musical equivalent of a shoulder to cry on, with McLachlan offering words of encouragement to beaten-down souls like the world’s most sympathetic life coach. And if McLachlan is several decades removed from her Lilith Fair mobilization efforts, uplifting self-empowerment anthems like “One in a Long Line” and “Rise” show the festival’s feminist fuse still burns brightly inside her.
As ever, McLachlan masterfully distills relationships to the most intimate details (“I want to feel the shiver/Your fingers writing poetry on my skin,” she sings on the dustbowl devotional “Long Road Home”), while delving into their messy aftermaths with unflinching resolve: The post-breakup piano ballad “Wilderness” just might be the most elegant “fuck you” to an ex ever written.
But while its songs take the form of deeply personal heart-to-heart conversations, Better Broken is very much tuned into the socio-political tumult weighing on all our lives—the tender piano serenade “Only Human” is the musical equivalent of a shoulder to cry on, with McLachlan offering words of encouragement to beaten-down souls like the world’s most sympathetic life coach. And if McLachlan is several decades removed from her Lilith Fair mobilization efforts, uplifting self-empowerment anthems like “One in a Long Line” and “Rise” show the festival’s feminist fuse still burns brightly inside her.
Better Broken
Sarah McLachlan
Sarah McLachlan’s first album of originals in 11 years fortuitously arrives in the same month as the premiere of Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, a documentary that celebrates the trailblazing legacy of her all-women festival. And in many respects, Better Broken serves the same function in 2025 as Lilith Fair did in the ’90s, by providing a safe space for fans to gather and wallow in all the feels. With boygenius producer Tony Berg behind the boards, Better Broken sees McLachlan effortlessly integrate herself into a contemporary singer-songwriter landscape she helped create, with the title track reintroducing us to the folk-schooled storytelling, trip-hoppy textures, and hair-raising vocal turns that made her an adult-alternative icon.
As ever, McLachlan masterfully distills relationships to the most intimate details (“I want to feel the shiver/Your fingers writing poetry on my skin,” she sings on the dustbowl devotional “Long Road Home”), while delving into their messy aftermaths with unflinching resolve: The post-breakup piano ballad “Wilderness” just might be the most elegant “fuck you” to an ex ever written.
But while its songs take the form of deeply personal heart-to-heart conversations, Better Broken is very much tuned into the socio-political tumult weighing on all our lives—the tender piano serenade “Only Human” is the musical equivalent of a shoulder to cry on, with McLachlan offering words of encouragement to beaten-down souls like the world’s most sympathetic life coach. And if McLachlan is several decades removed from her Lilith Fair mobilization efforts, uplifting self-empowerment anthems like “One in a Long Line” and “Rise” show the festival’s feminist fuse still burns brightly inside her.
As ever, McLachlan masterfully distills relationships to the most intimate details (“I want to feel the shiver/Your fingers writing poetry on my skin,” she sings on the dustbowl devotional “Long Road Home”), while delving into their messy aftermaths with unflinching resolve: The post-breakup piano ballad “Wilderness” just might be the most elegant “fuck you” to an ex ever written.
But while its songs take the form of deeply personal heart-to-heart conversations, Better Broken is very much tuned into the socio-political tumult weighing on all our lives—the tender piano serenade “Only Human” is the musical equivalent of a shoulder to cry on, with McLachlan offering words of encouragement to beaten-down souls like the world’s most sympathetic life coach. And if McLachlan is several decades removed from her Lilith Fair mobilization efforts, uplifting self-empowerment anthems like “One in a Long Line” and “Rise” show the festival’s feminist fuse still burns brightly inside her.
