Sara Bareilles Discusses "Good Grief" and Finding Hope in Adversity

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Sep 13, 2026 1:24pm PT

Sara Bareilles on ‘Good Grief’ and Finding Joy in the Tough Stuff: ‘Grief Is the Mothership of This Record, but It Carries Release, Hope, Optimism and Connection’

By Chris Willman

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Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

ChrisWillman

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She could have called it “Great Grief,” but that would have been immodest. Sara Bareilles ‘ “Good Grief,” her first new studio album in seven years, is one of the year’s finest achievements from a singer-songwriter… and its purely musical delights are such that you might feel that way about it even if you haven’t been through some shit, as they say.

If you have, all the better to relate to the record and its sometimes somber, sometimes playful meditations on a whole catalog of grief (and grievances): losing best friends to death at too early an age, dealing with fertility struggles, running to and away from the precipice of love, eroding women’s rights, mental health issues, and the challenges of continuing to believe in the promise of America.

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_Originally reported by [Variety Music](https://variety.com/2026/music/news/sara-bareilles-interview-good-grief-album-1236860774/)._