Alessia Cara
Grammy-winning singer Alessia Cara has made her long-awaited return to the spotlight after taking some time away from making music. The Canadian crooner’s fourth studio album Love & Hyperbole is out now and showcases the hitmaker’s more mature and experienced point of view four years after her last LP In the Meantime. She released the album’s lead single “Dead Man” last July, and in October, the follow-up single “(Isn’t It) Obvious” arrived complete with a John Mayer guitar solo and a Law & Order: Special Victims Unit needle drop.
It’s a project that symbolizes much more than just a return to music for Cara. “Between In The Meantime and starting to write this album, there were a few months where I wasn’t writing at all. I just felt the need to turn everything off and not write at all. I wasn’t playing guitar; I wasn’t listening to much music. I was just being a person in a different way, experiencing different things and trying to push music to the side a little bit, so I could gather new experiences and nourish parts of my life that felt neglected,” she explained to Uproxx of the process. “Then, I started thinking about writing again and felt like I was kind of ready, but I had to start a little bit slow because these new experiences in my life were causing me to approach writing in a different way.”
“I had to rediscover my understanding of who I am as an artist and as a writer, find a new voice in a way, and write from a different place, and just redevelop my love for music again,” she confessed.
As a result, the music itself came from a brand new place with the album taking a notably more acoustic direction from past projects. “Sonically, it feels a little different. It feels like a step forward,” she told Beatroute of the new tunes. “It’s more sophisticated, more live-sounding. I’ve always been inspired by music from the ’60s and ’70s, and I wanted to incorporate that energy into this album.”
Naturally, Love & Hyperbole became a mirror reflecting the image of a new artist back at her. “I feel like I’ve stayed the same in a lot of ways, but in other ways, I’m a completely different person,” she concluded. “I’ve let go of a lot of fears, shyness, and anxiety. I’m more free now, more at peace with myself.”
