By Canadian singer-songwriter Alessia Cara is preparing for the release of her forthcoming sophomore album, The Pains of Growing, by taking things back to the beginning.
On Saturday, Cara released three stripped-down acoustic performances of three tracks off the new album in partnership with Vevo. Cara, who won the Grammy for Best New Artist this year – the first Canadian artist to do so! – is the principle writer of every song on the new album.
The three songs, all of which have been released as singles, “Not Today,” “Growing Pains,” and “Trust My Lonely,” each touch on themes of self-confidence, empowerment, innocence, and insecurity, something that Cara has made a main focus of her musical career since she wrote the body-positive anthem, “Scars To Your Beautiful,” when she was 17.
Cara told The National in an interview that the release of The Pains of Growing feels risky. “There’s a whole stigma around the second album,” she said. “‘Can they do it again?’ ‘Will this work?’ So it was kind of a risk, but I really wanted to do it anyway.”
But she doesn’t have anything to worry about. Cara’s songwriting prowess shines through in the acoustic performances. Dressed in a loose-fitting suit and tie with a bare face and freely flowing hair, the 22-year-old singer and her band play through each song beautifully. It’s clear that the “Scars To Your Beautiful” singer isn’t holding back about confronting her fear of getting older and trying to grow wiser.
Watch the videos for “Not Today,” “Growing Pains,” and “Trust My Lonely” below:
The Pains of Growing is out November 30.
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