Sara Bareilles’ ‘Good Grief’ Album Breaks a Seven-Year Silence

Sara Bareilles is dismantling the transactional nature of pop stardom. Rather than posing for photos or signing autographs on her current tour, the 46-year-old singer-songwriter has erected physical installations in the lobbies of every venue where fans are prompted to write anonymous answers to questions like, “What do you carry with you always?” and “What keeps you from feeling totally free?” Her team also activated a dedicated hotline (888-282-4062) for listeners to leave voicemails about their own losses. Selected recordings play during the concerts as transitions between songs.

The initiative anchors the rollout for “Good Grief,” Bareilles’ first solo studio album in seven years, and its accompanying making-of documentary currently screening in theaters. The three-night stand at the Dolby Theatre begins Monday, featuring a stage design structured to resemble the skeletal frame of a house, draped in sheer fabrics that shift shape throughout the performance. She tours with keyboardist Misty Boyce, guitarist Butterfly Boucher, multi-instrumentalist Rich Hinman, bassist Joe Ayoub, percussionist Mona Tavakoli and drummer Derrek Phillips.

“Good Grief” arrives after a prolonged stretch of compounding personal devastation. The album processes the 2020 death of Chad Joseph, her college best friend and former manager who died following a Stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis, alongside the 2024 loss of Gavin Creel, a close friend and her co-star in the Broadway revival of “Into the Woods.” Those bereavements collided with the isolation of pandemic lockdowns, the cancellation of the Tina Fey-produced comedy series “Girls5Eva,” and years of grueling fertility treatments. In the documentary, Bareilles disclosed she experienced her first miscarriage earlier this year and is now considering egg donation.

That candor extends directly into the tracklist. “Ladies in a Line” addresses the clinical reality of in vitro fertilization, depicting women waiting through appointments involving fine-tipped needles. While online communities such as Reddit have long curated playlists for fertility struggles, mainstream pop music rarely addresses IVF explicitly. Bareilles pointed to Martika’s 1991 Prince collaboration “Love … Thy Will Be Done” as a personal touchstone for navigating that specific type of surrender.

Musically, the record oscillates between stark confession and deliberate release. During a recent SiriusXM taping, Bareilles broke down at the piano while performing “Forever,” an imagined promise delivered from beyond the grave. She allowed the pause to remain in the final recording before finishing the song’s repeated mantra, “I’ll be here forever.” Conversely, “Just a Kid” channels the upbeat momentum of her 2007 breakthrough hit “Love Song,” built around a spontaneous voice memo she recorded about Joseph’s lasting impact. The opening track, “Home,” features dulcimer instrumentation and establishes the album’s central thesis: “Tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine.”

Collaboration shaped several tracks. Her husband, actor and songwriter Joe Tippett — known for his role in “Mare of Easttown” — sent lyrics that became “Idiot Heart,” a dance-oriented pivot on the record. Bareilles admitted they had to negotiate the arrangement after Tippett expressed preference for his original musical composition. Poet Megan Falley also received a songwriting credit on the track for a lyrical fragment inspired by her late partner, Andrea Gibson, the former poet laureate of Colorado who died of ovarian cancer. Bareilles previously collaborated with Brandi Carlile on “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” for the Oscar-nominated documentary “Come See Me in the Good Light,” which chronicles Gibson’s final years.

Bareilles rejects the framing of herself as someone who has conquered grief, describing herself instead as a student of it and positioning her touring band as facilitators rather than experts. This philosophy mirrors her broader trajectory since scoring the Tony Award-nominated musical “Waitress,” which premiered in 2015 and ran on Broadway for four years. Unlike many pop artists who treat theatrical work as a brief detour, Bareilles has deepened her ties to the stage. She is currently composing the score for “The Interestings,” a musical adaptation of Meg Wolitzer’s 2013 novel about six teenagers who form a bond at a 1970s arts camp and navigate its complications into adulthood.

“The Interestings” will have its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre near Bareilles’ hometown of Eureka, California. Performances begin Jan. 31, with opening night scheduled for Feb. 17. The Brooklyn-based artist described the new score as significantly more elastic than her previous theatrical work, reflecting a decade of evolution in her compositional approach.