Bareilles is mourning a few things — the deaths of close friends, dreams of easy fertility, assumptions of female autonomy, the American dream — but the music soars, more often than not.
Plus IconChris Willman
Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic
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Epic Records Well, just how good can grief be? That’s a question raised by Sara Bareilles‘ “Good Grief,” which, true to its promissory title, deals primarily with loss and death and the kind of tough stuff that folks in a marketing meeting might suggest slightly downplaying when one is releasing one’s first studio album in seven years. If that focus sounds like it could make for a slog, Bareilles — who was prompted to go down this path by the death of her decades-long best friend — is very much into finding ways to celebrate as well as mourn, or at least actively explore how those two polarizing impulses might intersect. But apart from that, there’s the matter of just how awfully spirit-lifting her earth-angel mezzo-soprano tends to be, even when backing herself into dark corners before backing her way back out again. All of which is to say: Music lovers could not ask for a better bereavement counselor.
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