Detailing everything from being love-struck to reconnecting with yourself post-breakup, Sarah Bernadette bears it all in her candidly colorful New Leaves album.
Jazz singer-songwriter Sarah Bernadette’s debut full-length album New Leaves, out May 27, vividly paints the changing of life’s seasons with artful ease. Going through those coming-of-age feelings like finding love, losing it and then reconnecting with yourself, New Leaves is a cross-between the effortless lyrical relatability of Taylor Swift and those jazzy earworm hooks from Lake Street Dive.
Detailing the emotional highs and lows of navigating love as a young adult, she skillfully weaves together the imagery of plants and their congruity with the human experience throughout the album. Every track is a metamorphosis demonstrating growth, change, withering or renourishment.
Her single “Green” “refers to botanical analogies surrounding the excitement of new love as told by growing plants together with a new person,” she explains. “‘What Did I Expect?’ is the flipside to ‘Green’ – what happens when we don’t continue to nurture the growth and new life we have created together?”
Taking listeners from the sultry-paradise that is “Drink Me In” to the brokenhearted freedom found in “Lonely With You,” there is an underlying journey of self-discovery which Bernadette candidly presents. The album also includes Bernadette’s first Spanish-language release, “Pintaste La Ciudad,” a poignant track that explains her shift in outlook from color to black after a breakup. In summation, she says, “New Leaves explores love found, love lost and self-love rediscovered underneath it all through self-reflection.”
Hoping to foster connection through her music, the singer-songwriter was intentional with the album’s thematic structure and botanical symbolism which serve to create a stronger message overall. “This album marks the beginning of me believing in myself and my emotions, and I hope it can spark the same feeling in my listeners.”
Listen to New Leaves
