ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Sarah McLachlan is back. The Canadian singer-songwriter known for creating the Lilith Fair Music Festival in the '90s has just released her first new original album in 11 years. It's called "Better Broken."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BETTER BROKEN")
SARAH MCLACHLAN: (Singing) Let it be all it is, small and still and better left alone. Some things are better broken.
SHAPIRO: For our New Music Friday segment, Kyle Meredith is here to talk about the album. He's a host at member station WFPK in Louisville. Hi there.
KYLE MEREDITH, BYLINE: Hi, Ari. Thanks for having me.
SHAPIRO: For listeners who are not my age, how would you describe Sarah McLachlan and her sound?
MEREDITH: Well, I, too, am from the '90s. Sarah was huge in the '90s. She had huge hits with "Angel," "Building A Mystery." She started the Lilith Fair...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BUILDING A MYSTERY")
MCLACHLAN: (Singing) 'Cause you're working, building a mystery.
MEREDITH: ...Forty million albums, three Grammys and was really one of the most poetic singer-songwriters to come out of a decade that really gave us a whole lot of singer-songwriters. I mean, she was one of my favorites. And when you set her next to folks like Fiona Apple and Sheryl Crow, it was really a big scene in movement at the time.
SHAPIRO: Yeah, how would you describe her sound on this album compared to that sound that she became known for in her heyday?
MEREDITH: Well, that's the cool thing because when she was making this album, she was on the 30th anniversary of her "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy," and I think you can hear that. She was always kind of on the peripheral, brushing up against folktronica that was happening at the time and trip-hop, although she definitely came at the more singer-songwriter side of that but, you know, those hits like "Possession" and "Sweet Surrender" that were also massive at the time. Like, you get that same pulse, I guess, you would say. She really brought the beat back on songs like the title track there - on "Better Broken."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BETTER BROKEN")
MCLACHLAN: (Singing) So don't come back to me begging, why'd you leave? Tell me why. How could you let this go? Let it be all it is, small and still, a memory like a stone.
SHAPIRO: Is there a song on the new album that you think really encapsulates her return?
MEREDITH: Oh, absolutely - I mean, for her to come back this long after 11 years, I think it meant that she needed to have something to say, and she certainly does. I think the centerpiece for the whole record is a song called "One In A Long Line."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ONE IN A LONG LINE")
MCLACHLAN: (Singing) I am one in a long line, sound of body, strong in mind. I've worked hard to know myself. You don't get to decide what I believe, what I give up, how I grieve.
MEREDITH: I mean, this track right here, it really is an anthem for women's rights - you hear that - and especially coming from Sarah, who's been talking about this for 30 years. But this time she has her daughters on it. It's a song for 2025 but, again, coming from someone who really understands the message and has written a song that - unlike other songs on the record that do hearken back, this one feels very present, very now, very real for this moment.
SHAPIRO: You've also gotten to see a new documentary about Lilith Fair. Tell us about it.
MEREDITH: Yeah, the Lilith Fair, of course, was that groundbreaking festival in the '90s. It was just women artists. It was at a time when radio stations said that you can't play women artists back-to-back. It was when touring agents said that you can't put two women artists on the bill. And Sarah McLachlan destroyed that notion. I mean, she grabbed Paula Cole. They went on tour. That built into a much bigger tour that had folks like Sheryl Crow and Erykah Badu and Missy Elliott on it. And what's really great about the documentary - it's so powerful - but it's realizing that there's a whole generation that wasn't aware. For some reason, it didn't carry over like Lollapalooza or Woodstock, or one of those names. Olivia Rodrigo is in the documentary, and she talks about just having her mind blown hearing that there was a festival that was just women artists like that. And of course, the greatest thing about it at the end is watching her prove all of those men wrong that this couldn't work. It was one of the most successful tours in the whole country, and, of course, it had a fantastic soundtrack to go along with.
SHAPIRO: Kyle Meredith is program director and host at WFPK in Louisville. Thanks for talking with us.
MEREDITH: Thanks, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Sarah McLachlan's new album "Better Broken" is out today, and "Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery" is out Sunday. You can also hear Kyle on today's episode of the New Music Friday podcast from NPR Music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RISE")
MCLACHLAN: (Singing) But we're gonna need each other to quiet the thunder. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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