Grammy nominee for Album Of The Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Features lead single ‘Brave’ – impacting at radio now Amazing performance of Brave with Carol King broadcast as part of Grammys TV programming.
Recorded in Los Angeles and New York with producers including John O'Mahony (Coldplay, Metric) and Mark Endert (Fiona Apple, The Fray, Train), The Blessed Unrest continues to display Sara's signature voice and stellar songwriting.
Review:
The Blessed Unrest is the flip side of Kaleidoscope Heart, the 2010 album
that presaged Sara Bareilles' move into the mainstream, giving the
singer/songwriter her first number one album and opening the door for a gig on
network television hosting the competition The Sing-Off. Kaleidoscope Heart was
bright and almost baroque, its arrangements lush and large, the kind of record
that seems hazily triumphant – which it was, to the extent that it was
following her breakthrough hit “Love Song,” the kind of single that could've
pegged her as a one-hit wonder along the lines of Vanessa Carlton. Bareilles
escaped that fate, as that spot on The Sing-Off illustrates, but The Blessed
Unrest doesn't quite feel like a record written in the wake of such success.
It's moody and textured, rolling out at a deliberate pace and colored in blues
and greys, skillfully skirting the edges of alienation – for as much as
Bareilles can occasionally suggest early Fiona Apple, as she does once again on
“Hercules,” there is no chance she'll chuck it all in and deliver a
piano-and-drums excursion into the avant-garde – by asking listeners to lean
in so they can absorb all the details. There are moments of levity here, such as
the effervescent “Little Black Dress” and the subtly synthesized rhythms on
“Eden,” but they're here to provide necessary texture and relief, puncturing
the cool nocturnal glow of The Blessed Unrest just enough so the album opens up
and doesn't feel mopey. Then again, Bareilles is such a naturally melodic
songwriter that she doesn't run much of a risk of seeming insular on The Blessed
Unrest and, fortunately, the feel of the album follows the contours of her
melodies, so its melancholy is warm and inviting.
All Music Guide – Stephen Thomas Erlewine