When Sara Bareilles came out with her album "The Blessed Unrest" in July of 2013, it was an incredibly exciting day for me as an avid follower of her music. I had been waiting to hear a new sound from her for three years and I was ready for more. This album stood out in a way that a new album should. As an artist who had already released five albums in the last seven years, Sara took a new spin on "The Blessed Unrest." Still holding true to her beautiful piano melodies and vibrant lyrics, she poured a new side of her soul into the music. The following is my personal review of this album.
1. Brave
We all know this song. It's played on the radio probably too many times, but when you really pay attention to the lyrics, it's an incredible message. Sara wrote this song for a friend who was coming out as gay, and this song served as an encouragement for that friend to be brave enough to be himself. The song quickly turned into an anthem and was used in tons of commercials, movie previews, and served as a symbol for equality. While many will say they are already sick of it, I bet you that anyone would sing along to that catchy chorus. I never skip past this song when it comes up on shuffle.
2. Chasing the Sun
This is probably close to my favorite song on the album, and one of my favorites of hers overall. The way she rhymes each line of lyrics is brilliant. "So how do you do it, with just words and just music / capture the feeling that my earth is somebody's ceiling." I mean, there are a million ways to phrase that, but something about the vocabulary she chose paints a gorgeous picture of how to capture an emotion or feeling through music. The ever-steady piano chords serve to drive the song forward, and the percussion and pulsing synthesizers in the chorus and 2nd verse only add to the overall feel of the song, and the actual "chasing" of the sun.
3. Hercules
Set in the lower range of the piano and Bareilles' voice, Hercules is a powerful cry for help and inner strength. "Make me a Hercules" is suggesting that she doesn't want help from someone else, but rather wants to be made stronger herself. One of my favorite lines is "I used to let my words wax poetic, but it melted, a puddle at my feet now." This, to me, suggests pressure from the industry and record label to blend in more with the pop norm. Bareilles has never been one to conform to the generalized genre of pop. She has always been true to herself and her own style of music, and continues to speak her mind in her music.
Hercules is also a recognition of feeling small and that one has run out of energy and willpower. She brings back the positivity, though, by saying, "This is not the end, though," and in the last line of the bridge, "But I only need turn around to face the light and decide flight or fight." She ends the song with "Make me a Hercules" which has a somewhat positive outcome, but still is sprinkled with an air of a cry for help.
4. Manhattan
The song that pulls at the heart strings, Manhattan will probably remind us of Bareilles' other slow, expository love songs such as Gravity and Between the Lines. Brilliantly written, Manhattan compares a love she can't have with the new city she's living in. Caught between two worlds, she's learning to let go of a past love and embrace a new reality. The turning point in the song, and the point in which we realize just how difficult this letting go is, is in the last few lines of the bridge where she sings, "And I know that holding us in place is simply fear of what's already changed."
The choice between who she wants and where she wants to be has already been made, but it's the letting go of the person that she can't quite bring herself to do. The fear of what's already changed is the denial of the reality. So brilliantly spoken, that line represents something that so many people can relate to when it comes to love and relationships and that feeling of having to let something go, but trying to hold on simultaneously.
5. Satellite Call
This is the kind of song where everyone pulls out their lighters (or cell phones) to wave in the air for four and a half minutes. Satellite Call is an anthem that is so calm and haunting it could put you into a trance. Combatting loneliness with a steady, unsubtle drum line and heavy use of piano pedals, this song will leave you feeling both comforted and lost at the same time. "You may find yourself in the dead of night lost somewhere out there in that great big beautiful sky." This line stretches your mind to the vast universe around us, and her next line, "you're all just perfect little satellites" will make you feel absolutely minuscule in this universe we live in. The comfort in the song is the line "this is me sending out my satellite call." A slow but steady tune, Satellite Call is a song I'll listen to while taking a stroll outside or right before going to sleep.
6. Little Black Dress
If you've ever heard Sara's song King of Anything, Little Black Dress will put you in the same mood. Tinted with sadness of being single, this song's overall message is to feel happy in your own skin and to make yourself content with your life. The song starts out with her singing to someone and telling them she finally sees what they're doing: hurting her. By putting on her little black dress, she's brushing off the negativity and dancing her troubles away. She's learning to take care of herself and in the chorus, the bubbly upbeat melody proves that she is taking control of her life and that this song about being single doesn't have to be sad. She's painting a new picture in which it doesn't matter that she is without a significant other; she's better off making the music for herself.
7. Cassiopeia
Bareilles uses language and words associated with the stars and galaxies to portray a wish to fly off into another world. She uses Cassiopeia, a constellation, as her character that wants to break free. Her use of vocabulary in this song is also astounding. "All alone in the corner of the night sky / Spiral bones of a supernova starlight / Fell in love with another burning bright she / Dreamed of a way to ignite." Again, she personifies the constellation as a real person falling in love with the stars. She describes Cassiopeia as lonely and desperate and it gives a very original spin on outer space and ties it into a love story, giving it her own Sara character.
8. 1,000 Times
Without a doubt, lyrically this is the heaviest song on the album. Very honest and open, 1,000 Times describes a desire to be physically close to someone and to reveal true feelings. She goes as far as to say, "I would die to make you mine." The desperation and devotion to whoever she is singing to is evident. My favorite line in the song is, "'Cause love is a cage, these words on a page carry the pain, they don't free it." Even through writing and expressing these feelings, this doesn't release the pain she feels of loving this person who doesn't love her back. Once again, brilliantly written where her words show us just how deeply she feels and let us tap into what love can make a person feel.
9. I Choose You
Shifting gears, this song serves as a message to someone you love. Cleverly placed after a heavy long song that leaves you feeling somewhat desperate, I Choose You is the complete opposite. From the catchy chord progression and melody to the uplifting lyrics, I Choose You is literally about finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. You've found the one and you are declaring your love to them. "I could live by the light in your eyes." This suggests that even if the whole world went dark, as long as this person is by your side, you will be content. A fear of the future has finally disappeared because this person is in your life. Such a simple, somewhat cheesy, but beautiful song about finding love.
10. Eden
In this song, Sara uses Eden as a symbol for paradise. It is literally all metaphors for life explained through the Garden of Eden and the characters involved. Eden is portrayed as a place with no harm, no cruelty and mostly an escape from the real world. But nothing is perfect, and even Eden doesn't stay the same forever. "All those angels started acting the same ... Life in Eden changed ... So when they ask why'd she go you can say 'cause life in Eden changed." The song transforms into this idea that no place is perfect, even if it starts out seeming that way. The bridge is the place where Sara reminisces on the fact that she used to think this place of Eden was perfect, "as good as it gets", but now taking a look from the outside she can see that she was "choking on the air in Eden." Living in Eden was only a fantasy.
11. Islands
Sara uses this song to peer inside herself. She admits to giving up on romance and realizes she must become an island, she must defend herself and stand on her own two feet. "It's like I'm standing on the edge with just a telephone wire, trying to get to you first to say the world's on fire." She uses the 2nd person "you" to tell herself that she never lets anyone get too close by "dirtying up the windows" so it's difficult for someone to peer into who she really is. She ends the song with "holding my breath until I know you're alright because the water will only rise." She knows that as she continues to put up these walls around her, the water will continue to rise. It is a way for her to say that she knows eventually she'll have to let her walls come down, but she's not yet ready to do that.
12. December
The last song on the album, December reflects Sara's knowledge that she has changed and she can't go back now. She also reminds us that she once lived in Los Angeles, but now she's in this new and scary place of New York City. Even though this is the conclusion to the album, she repeats the phrase, "The darkened state I'm in" three times to remind us that she is still somewhat lost. The best part about this song concluding the album is the bridge because she says that in order to move on with your life in a new place, you have to let go or "give the other one away." "'Cause it can't be a mistake if I just call it change." This suggests that living in this new place is not a horrible and scary mistake, it's just a change. At the end when she repeats December over and over again, the background vocals are singing, "Can't turn around now / Break the chain, can't live in circles again." This reminds us that moving on with your life means breaking old habits, having new experiences, and letting go of the things you once did over and over again that always resulted in a negative outcome.
13. I Wanna Be Like Me
This bonus track shifts gears into bubbly and upbeat once more. The gist of the song is that she doesn't want to be like everyone else, she's content with being exactly who she is. The song is very repetitive with no bridge, and a small musical break with synthesizing drums and strings, very different from her usual style. It sounds electronic, but with her continuing singing of "oohs" and the violin playing the melody of the chorus in the background. She ends the song with "I wanna be like me." This is the perfect ending to the album. She has unapologetically been herself in all of these songs, and this song is emphasizing that by actually telling someone that she doesn't want to be like them. All she wants is to be like her.
