The song appears on her first album in over a decade
Global phenomenon Sarah McLachlan releases “Reminds Me,” featuring Muna’s Katie Gavin, the third single from Better Broken, due on Friday, September 19th via Concord Records. The pedal-steel-laced reverie is a heartfelt meditation on love’s ability to restore and uplift. McLachlan and Gavin capture the tender balance of vulnerability and joy, celebrating how transformative love can be.
“‘Reminds Me’ was written on an acoustic guitar during COVID. I went down the Yellowstone rabbit hole on TV and kind of fell in love with the whole cowboy country music thing and thought, ‘I want to write a love song.’” I want to write a cowboy love song. That’s kind of what it was called for a while,” McLachlan shares. “It was also an anniversary present for my partner, so that was sort of the impetus to write it. I just wanted it to be simple and pure and beautiful, maybe a little bit sappy. And I love that we got Katie Gavin to sing on it in the studio.”
McLachlan’s tenth studio album and debut release for Concord Records, Better Broken takes its title from its opening track, a soul-searching reflection on the fortitude that comes from weathering life’s constant storms, and furthers her legacy with a selection of songs that speak an uncompromising but radically illuminating truth about the state of the human condition.
Mainly recorded at the legendary Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, Better Broken instills a potent new energy into her lush and moody form of pop-rock, with contributions from esteemed musicians like Wendy Melvoin (a former guitarist for Prince and the Revolution), drummer Matt Chamberlain (Bob Dylan, David Bowie), multi-instrumentalist Benny Bock (Lucy Dacus, beabadoobee), and pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz (Kacey Musgraves, Florence + the Machine). In a monumental leap for McLachlan, Better Broken finds her widening her creative circle and working with producers Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, boygenius) and Will Maclellan (Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers).
The track listing’s myriad high points include “Gravity,” The first song she recorded for the album that delves deeper into her emotional life and explores the complexities of her relationship with her older daughter, “One In a Long Line,” an irrepressible anthem railing against the rapid erosion of women’s rights in recent years, “Long Road Home,” a rapturous love song, the pedal-steel-laced reverie “Reminds Me,” a lovestruck duet with Muna’s Katie Gavin, and the title track, out now. All throughout Better Broken, McLachlan and her fellow musicians bring an ineffable beauty to her expression of longing and grief and fierce determination.
During her three-decades-long career, McLachlan has won three Grammys, 12 Juno Awards, and sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan also founded the groundbreaking all-female music festival Lilith Fair, featuring an A-list lineup for female alternative musicians of the moment, including Sheryl Crow, Jewel, The Indigo Girls, Lisa Loeb, Fiona Apple, Erykah Badu, Tracy Chapman, Natalie Merchant and more. Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery, a new documentary directed by Ally Pankiw and produced by Dan Levy’s Not A Real Production Company, made its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival last week and is set to premiere on Hulu on September 21st.
McLachlan is also a philanthropist and the founder of Sarah McLachlan School of Music (SoM), a not-for-profit that offers music instruction and mentorship at no cost to children and youth facing barriers to access. SoM was founded in Vancouver in 2002, and it currently serves over 1,200 students a year with locations in Vancouver, New Westminster and Edmonton. McLachlan personally covers the administrative costs so that every dollar raised goes directly to support the students.
