What You Need to Know:
-Sarah McLachlan releases her long-awaited first album in 11 years — and the first since becoming an empty nester.
-“Every time someone mentioned it over the last three months, I’d just start leaking,” she reveals to PEOPLE.
–Better Broken is available now!
Sarah McLachlan’s 10th studio album, Better Broken, took a remarkable 11 years to come to fruition — and the title itself carries a story of its own.
Set to drop on Friday, Sept. 19, the album’s name is inspired by the oldest track, written a full 13 years ago.
“It never made it onto my last record, and honestly, I forgot about it. We hadn’t quite finished it… I think we just ran out of time,” the 57-year-old Angel singer reveals to PEOPLE.
As the album began to take shape, the phrase Better Broken continued to resonate deeply with Sarah McLachlan.
“This idea that we as humans are messy, that we go through so many challenges — but to emerge from it all still whole — that’s powerful and life-affirming,” she explains.
That message of resilience and healing ultimately became the heartbeat of the 11-track album, with a powerful theme of reclaiming oneself woven throughout.
Produced by Tony Berg and Will Maclellan, Better Broken showcases a standout moment with a powerful duet between Sarah McLachlan and MUNA’s Katie Gavin, who made waves last year with her Lilith Fair–inspired solo album What a Relief.
When shaping what would become the haunting ballad “Reminds Me,” McLachlan was intent on finding a voice that could both complement and challenge her own.
“We wanted to flip the traditional duet on its head,” McLachlan explained. “Bringing in another woman felt essential—someone who could embody the spirit of Lilith while speaking to today’s political and social landscape.”
She continued, “I was instantly taken with Katie’s voice. The contrast between us is stunning, but it’s the way our voices intertwine that feels truly magical. That’s always what I’m searching for—two voices that don’t just blend, but elevate each other, creating something greater than the sum of their parts.”
McLachlan’s spark for the song came from an unlikely place—the hit series Yellowstone.
“During COVID, I completely fell down the Yellowstone rabbit hole and found myself enchanted by that rugged cowboy culture,” she recalled. “At some point I thought, ‘Why not write a cowboy love song?’ And that’s exactly where the song was born.”
For the “Fallen” singer, Better Broken has become a space to embrace and channel emotional chaos.
McLachlan—who shares two daughters, 23-year-old India Ann and 18-year-old Taja, with ex-husband Ashwin Sood—recently stepped into the bittersweet chapter of life as an empty nester.
“Anytime anyone even mentioned it over the last three months, I’d just start leaking tears,” she admitted with a laugh.
Better Broken finds McLachlan confronting the raw messiness of being human—transforming struggle into strength and rediscovering her own center along the way.
The album Better Broken is out now.
