Alessia Cara opens up about the making of her fourth LP ‘Love & Hyperbole,’ her decade-long evolution in the music industry, and how embracing both vulnerability and strength shaped her most personal and transformative album yet – one that navigates the complexities of self-doubt, healing, and rediscovering joy, all while blending genres, pushing creative boundaries, and crafting a sound that’s as expansive and nuanced as her emotional journey.
Stream: ‘Love & Hyperbole’ – Alessia Cara
Ten years after “Here” introduced her as a once-in-a-generation voice, Alessia Cara finds herself at a new beginning.
Her fourth album, Love & Hyperbole, is a testament to emotional extremes – the dizzying highs and aching lows that define the human experience. It’s a record about rediscovering joy, learning to trust love, and accepting that the past, no matter how heavy, is an inescapable part of who we become.
Released on Valentine’s Day via Def Jam, Love & Hyperbole is Alessia Cara’s boldest offering to date. The singer/songwriter’s ambitious fourth LP arrives in the wake of a period of personal reinvention and introspection, following 2021’s In the Meantime, an album that explored life’s ‘in-between states’ and picked apart the nuances of transition and uncertainty. Love & Hyperbole takes an even more expansive view of the emotional spectrum, blending moments of vulnerability with resilience as Cara embraces both the messiness of self-doubt and the catharsis of healing. This result is her most intimate and raw work yet.
For Cara, Love & Hyperbole wasn’t just an album; it was a journey of reclaiming joy and accepting the complex, sometimes messy nature of life.
“There was a time when I didn’t think I was allowed to be happy,” she admits. “I felt like I was supposed to be this tortured artist, and I didn’t know how to shake that. But eventually, I realized that joy is just as important to my artistry as the pain.”
This shift in mindset wasn’t easy, and it didn’t happen overnight. In fact, her process of creating the album was riddled with moments of uncertainty – especially in the early stages. “I didn’t know if I had anything left to say. I didn’t know if I still wanted to make music, or if I even could,” she reveals. “But I just let the feelings come, and once I stopped fighting myself, the music just started flowing.”
The album itself mirrors this process of transformation, balancing upbeat anthems with haunting ballads that echo the emotional spectrum of her journey. In “Go Outside!,” the opening track, Cara poses existential questions, asking, “Is it worse or is it me?” That line, in particular, captures a feeling that many listeners will find familiar in 2025 – a sense of self-doubt mixed with dread and an overwhelming awareness of the world’s current state. It’s a reflection of how Cara wrestled with her own internal chaos, feeling disconnected from her surroundings yet desperately trying to make sense of it all.
“I was in a place where I felt really lost and overwhelmed by everything. It was like, am I the problem? Or is the world just… broken?” she says. “I think ‘Go Outside!’ was the perfect song to start the album because it’s where I started – full of questions and confusion.”
But as the album progresses, Cara learns to embrace not only her own vulnerability, but also her strength.
In tracks like “Obvious” and “Slow Motion,” she captures moments of self-empowerment, signaling a shift from self-doubt to self-acceptance. “It’s about making peace with yourself, about letting go of fear and just allowing things to unfold,” she explains. “The journey wasn’t linear. It was messy, but I think that’s the beauty of it.”
As Love & Hyperbole reaches its finale with “Clearly,” Cara offers a moment of catharsis and healing. The song captures the serene clarity that comes from processing pain and finding peace. “I feel the ocean between us closing in,” she sings, describing the emotional distance that has been bridged between herself and a loved one. The imagery of “fences mending slowly” speaks to the deliberate work of rebuilding trust and reconnecting, a theme of reconciliation that mirrors Cara’s own journey. “For the first time, I can see you clearly,” she declares, not only about the relationship within the song, but also about her own growth. It’s a hopeful conclusion to the album – a reminder that, even after years of turmoil and self-doubt, healing is possible. Through the mess, the pain, and the uncertainty, Cara has found light, and “Clearly” signifies her embrace of that newfound clarity.
Throughout Love & Hyperbole, Cara invites listeners into her world of emotional complexity, celebrating the highs while acknowledging the lows.
It’s an album that refuses to shy away from the depth of feeling – whether it’s joy or pain, love or heartache. For Cara, this project was a moment of personal reconciliation, one where the messy, unpredictable nature of human experience became not just her story, but a universal truth.
Sitting down with Atwood Magazine, Alessia Cara reflects on her personal and artistic evolution over the past decade, from teenage newcomer to seasoned songwriter. She shares the highs and lows of making Love & Hyperbole, the moments of self-doubt that nearly kept her from music, and how she learned to stop self-sabotaging and start embracing happiness. In a candid and thoughtful conversation, she unpacks the big feelings that shaped the album – and how, for the first time, she’s allowing herself to feel them fully.
Dive into our full interview below, and get lost in the emotional depth of Alessia Cara’s journey – then listen to Love & Hyperbole to experience it all firsthand.
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:: stream/purchase Love & Hyperbole here ::
:: connect with Alessia Cara here ::
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Watch: “Slow Motion” – Alessia Cara
A CONVERSATION WITH ALESSIA CARA
Atwood Magazine: Alessia, thank you so much for taking the time! It's still, relatively, the beginning of the year. Do you have any New Year's resolutions?
Alessia Cara: I do. I do participate, sometimes successfully, most times not successful fully. But we’re only in January, so I’m still going strong. I have so many little resolutions. I like just like little self care things, just like eating better, being active at least once a day. So I’m trying really hard. I’m trying also to like cut down on the Uber Eats because it’s just a lot. So I’m trying to cook more, less Uber Eats. I have not ordered Uber Eats yet. We’re only a month in, I feel it coming soon. We’re going to keep holding on.
We're coming up on 10 years of your debut on the music scene. What does it feel like to be closing in on this special milestone? And do you have any plans to celebrate your first decade in the industry?
Alessia Cara: Oh, wow. Thank you so much. First of all, I mean, it’s crazy that it’s already 10 years. I cannot believe it. And I don’t know, I haven’t thought of any like solid plans to celebrate. I’m not even quite sure where I’ll be in the world. But we definitely have to do something to celebrate, of course, 10 years is a huge milestone and maybe we’ll put together, I don’t know, something special for the fans. I’ll think about it. I want to do something, but I just don’t know what.
How do you feel you've grown as an artist between those first songs on Know-It-All and the music of Love & Hyperbole?
Alessia Cara: I honestly like feel, and it’s so strange because I always say this, but on one end of things I feel the exact same, and then on the other end I feel like I do not recognize that person. Like I’ll get old interviews of myself and I’m just like, who is that? You know, I can’t even tap into like exactly what I was feeling or what was going on in my head, you know, so it’s strange, but I feel in many ways like I’m just a more well-rounded version of that person. You know, I’m still the same, but I’ve just kind of evolved and I’ve chipped away at the things that, you know, kind of were confusing me a little bit or that I didn’t really have a chance to hone in on. I feel like I’ve just like shaped it a little bit better, if that makes sense. Yeah, just like a more evolved version of that person, but the DNA is still there, like the essence of who I was is like, still there.
And you were a teenager at the time?
Alessia Cara: When I started making the album, I was 16, and then I got signed at 18.
Ten years does a lot. It changes you in so many ways. And yet you're right, the core remains the same. What is that core to you? Who do you think you are at your core – who is the Alessia Cara that you know?
Alessia Cara: I feel like I’ve always been a very stubborn person. I’ve always known, at the very least who I’m not. Even if I didn’t always know exactly who I was, I always knew who I wasn’t, who I didn’t want to be, what I didn’t want to do, and that still remains the same. I feel like I’m still, you know, an empathetic person who feels a lot of guilt all the time for nothing, for no reason. I struggle with boundaries the same way that I did back then. I think I just have better tools to keep those things at bay a little bit and to get out of the thought faster. But the thoughts still come, you know, I still feel like a very nostalgic, melancholic person. I just am able to work around it in different ways and build around it in different ways so that I can, you know, live life a little bit more at ease and enjoy it a little bit more. But those, default emotional responses, I find are still kind of the same. I’m just better at, handling them, you know, if that makes sense.
Yeah, I think it’s a lifelong journey for all of us. Love & Hyperbole has been billed as this album all about the beautifully strange thrill of finding true happiness. Can you share a little about the story behind this record?
Alessia Cara: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I guess, essentially, yeah, that is kind of what it is. But I think that this album is also about the idea that we are ultimately a product of, you know, every little thing that’s ever happened to us, good and bad. And I think that you need some sort of loss and pain in order to understand what love and joy are, and vice versa, you know? And I think on my last album, those two things were kind of clashing with one another, and I always felt like it was like one or the other. But I think on this album, I realized over the last three years writing it that, like, you need both of those things and you need contrast in life, and those things can actually work together, and you can kind of harness the bad in a way that, like, fuels the good in a strange way, or at least that’s how I’ve dealt with it. So that’s kind of what this album’s about.
It’s just about the process of, yes, finding joy and happiness and openness, but also learning to find that through using all the bad stuff, you know?
It's been over three years since the release of In the Meantime, which was hailed at the time, quoting Pitchfork, as “a moving and mature ode to in between states.” Very kind words from a publication not known for its kindness.
Alessia Cara: I was going to say, they said that about me?! Okay, wow. That’s very nice!
With that said, what was your vision going into this new record? Did that change over the course of writing and recording these songs?
Alessia Cara: I think the vision, honestly, for the record came about halfway through. When I first went into it, it was kind of like a trial period for me to dip my toe back into songwriting and, to be quite frank, just my love of music in general. I found that after my last album, there was a period of time where I wasn’t writing at all. I didn’t want to write. I wasn’t singing around the house. I hadn’t picked up a guitar in months. I wasn’t listening to much music at all. So I don’t know exactly the reason why that I distanced myself from it, or I felt like an emotional distance from it. So, you know, when I started writing this album, it was honestly just me trying to, like, re-jig that fuse a little bit and re-discover my purpose or my love of music. So I didn’t really have the album concept. I was just trying to write about little things that I was feeling here and there until it started ramping up and, until I started getting excited again. And then about halfway through, I realized what was happening, and I was like, oh, this is, you know.
This is gonna be an album, and I can see it, and I understand what this is. And I started just to get a, just an understanding of, you know, what I wanted it to be and what it was becoming on its own.
We talked about being 10 years in now. How do you feel Love & Hyperbole reintroduces you in 2025? How does it capture your artistry and who you are today?
Alessia Cara: I think it’s, again, still me. And I hope, the hope is that, you know, the people who have listened to me over the last 10 years still see my identity in it. The people who loved my older music can still appreciate this and see so much of me in it. But I also hope that it shows my evolution sonically and artistically, lyrically, vocally. This feels like a really big step forward for me. So I feel like it’s a bit of both. Like, again, the DNA of me is still in there, but I think it’s just shaped in a different way. And the color palette is a little bit different. It just feels more evolved and more sophisticated and more well-rounded, I think.
You've also talked about how this entire project is about feeling very big feelings, which we can all relate to, but often it's hard to express those feelings outwardly to say what we really want to say. Can you talk about those big feelings and your experiences channeling them into songs this time around?
Alessia Cara: Yeah, I mean, there were so many big feelings. But, I mean, you know, on the part one, I guess, of the last three years was like, entailed a lot of feelings of just being really, really stuck and not understanding how to get out of this funk that I was feeling and being really angry with myself for constantly self-sabotaging and allowing myself to fall back into the pattern of sadness and you know, like, just being a recluse a little bit. So that’s kind of what I was dealing with on the first chunk of the album. And then the next, you know, set of big feelings was like being faced with a new opportunity for love and, you know, not repeating old patterns and then being scared that I was going to mess that up.
And then being even more angry at myself, you know, looking at this great thing in front of me and not understanding like how to really grasp it or how to appreciate it. And then the third part, which is the part that I’m most, you know, happy about is, you know, learning to not repeat that pattern and learning to love myself and trust myself enough to accept the good things that were coming to me and understanding that I deserved them and that I would be okay if it didn’t work out, you know. So that’s kind of, I guess, of all the big feelings and in terms of capturing them, it was just kind of writing as I went and you know, every little micro-emotion, just stretching that out into a three-minute song and really analyzing everything and feeling it all and, you know, kind of just making it feel as tolerable and fun as possible.
You shared a little bit beforehand about the title Love & Hyperbole itself. It’s not lost on me that this album is releasing on Valentine's Day. How intentional is that timing?
Alessia Cara: It is intentional, but it kind of also sort of just serendipitously happened that way because I initially wanted to release this album in around October of 2024. And then I realized that, I don’t know, I just wanted these songs to just breathe a little bit more and not rush anything. So I decided to push it to the new year. And when I was looking at possible days that I could do and what month could I do, my manager Chris was like, what about, well, he’s like, it’s called Love & Hyperbole. Like, what about Valentine’s Day? And then we looked at it and I was like, we just looked at each other, and we were like, oh, my God, this is perfect. And it was on a Friday. I was like, this is so serendipitous and perfect. So it was intentional, but not at the same time. Yeah, it really fell perfectly and I felt like it was just the right amount of time to let everything breathe and to get everything perfect. So, yeah, it worked out.
The album opens with “Go Outside!,” this gorgeous, harmony filled track boasting lyrics like, “how can I come back to earth when I can’t go outside?” But I have to say the line, “is it worse or is it me?” intentionally or otherwise really felt tailored to life in 2025. Why open the record with this song?“]
Alessia Cara: I opened the record with this song because it really felt like that was the biggest feeling I had going into writing again. And in that, just over the last three years, that was like the first feeling that I felt when I started even thinking about writing again. I was in a place where, you know, I was in Los Angeles trying to be like, you know, let’s start up some writing sessions and, you know, the whole thing and just being like, I don’t feel enthusiastic about anything. I don’t even know if I’m a good writer, if I want to do this ever again, if the world is falling apart or if I’m just so dramatic, you know, and just like, I was just so mad at myself because I was like, I have a couple days off here and I have no friends, because I have never allowed myself to make friends here. And then I was just telling myself, like, you know, you’re the worst. You’ve sabotaged yourself. But then there’s the other end of it, which is like. Or is the world actually like.
Horrible and terrible? And am I just tuned into the fact that things are really scary and sad and weird, or is it just me? You know, so it’s, I just felt like that was a good way to open the album because that’s honestly, chronologically, like over the last three years, what I felt in the beginning. And it just felt like the beginning of the journey, you know, because it, there’s no answers in it. It’s a song with zero answers. There’s no, like, it’s just a bunch of questions and confusion and I think those questions are answered a little bit throughout the rest of the album. So it just felt like a good place to start.
“Go Outside!” is so relatable and warm. Your harmonies and melodies this time around are so powerful. I get hints of R&B and soul that date back to the Motown era, from the fusion of the '80s, and the '90s, Erykah Badu… I hear so much influence on this record. Who were your ‘north stars’ this time around? How did you go about making the songs your own?
Alessia Cara: I mean, there were so many. Honestly, I was listening to a ton, a ton, a ton of music. Just because I wanted to redevelop my love for what I get to do for a living, you know, and just redevelop my love for music just as a fan. And so in order to do that for me, like, I always, when I’m feeling like, kind of stuck and when I want to just reconnect to my love of music, I always go back in time for me. So I go back to like, music from the ’60s and ’70s, ’90s. And my influences were kind of, honestly, all over the place. Like, I was listening to a lot of The Beatles and Stevie Wonder and like, you know, George Harrison’s solo project and the Chili Peppers and Bob Dylan and then Billy Joel, Stevie Nicks. So many different people.
And then I guess more currently, like Amy Winehouse and Erykah Badu and Sade. You know, just artists that I felt like were really making really great cool stuff and that were ahead of their time and yeah, that were just innovative and honest and whose music makes, you know, the world, but specifically me, just feel a lot of great things and that inspire me to want to create my own, with my own color palette. So those are just some of the people that I was listening to. But there were so many.
I want to talk about the choice of singles, “Dead Man,” “Isn't It Obvious,” and “Slow Motion.” What inspired you to have these be the songs that you tease in advance of the full record?
Alessia Cara: I would say that, you know, again, like, this album kind of has these like three phases to it, or like three chapters in a way, if you’re looking at it chronologically. And so I wanted each single to kind of represent each chapter. So with “Dead Man,” that felt very much like those initial feelings of being stuck and sad and angry and self-sabotaging but wanting to break the pattern, you know. And then we have “Obvious,” which to me felt like the turning point of the album, which is that like fork in the road of being faced with something really beautiful.
And thinking to yourself, am I gonna let my fear, you know, get the best of me and ruin this or am I gonna be able to just harness all the awful things I’ve felt about myself and about the world and you know, turn them into something that helps me. Then, you know, so that I could nourish that thing that is coming to me and understand that I deserve it. And then, you know, “Slow Motion” is kind of just celebrating that. Celebrating the fact that I feel that I chose correctly and that I’m, you know, proud of myself and that I’m able to just like be in love with, you know, like in a romantic way, but also more with myself and with life and just being able to like really relish in beautiful moments and even though they’re fleeting, just understanding that, you know, I should and can enjoy them while they’re here and that if they go, that I’ll be okay… That’s the picture I wanted to paint for each single.
I love that some of my favorite songs of the album are the deeper cuts, “Drive,” “Get to You,” “Nighttime Thing.” We live in such a singles-oriented society right now and I've always seen you as an album artist. If someone were to listen to more than just the singles, which song or songs do you hope break through?
Alessia Cara: That’s a great question. Yeah, it’s so funny because often my favorite songs are the ones that, you know, most people don’t hear or, you know, it’s always that way. I find that every artist I talk to, like their favorite songs are the deep cuts. I will say though that a lot of the single, I mean all the singles that I’ve put out are some of my favorite songs. I feel very happy about that. That finally what I love and what the world gets to hear on, are aligned. But I also feel like there’s so many that I love that I hope people connect to. I mean, “Drive” and “Get to You” are some of my, you know, some of those ones for sure. I also, I don’t know, I mean all of them of course. I also love “Run Run.” That’s a fun one for me that I always felt was like one of my faves. “Go Outside!”, it’s hard to say. I feel like I’m going to say all of them, but Drive is definitely one of them. “Drive” and “Get to You” are for me, emotional heavy hitters that always get me that I hope people will like because I do really love them.
And your performance on those two are just absolutely incredible, too. And again, it's so refreshing to hear a song with such great melodies and harmonies. Then with “Get to You,” there’s that surprise at the end. The first time I heard that, I was shocked!
Alessia Cara: I know. Good, that’s the goal! Yeah, that was so fun. It’s so fun to do that. I love doing something unexpected on that song, or just in general, I love doing things that are a little bit left – it makes me happy.
And I do too. Because honestly, so much music that breaks through these days is safe, and I don't think you do things safely.
Alessia Cara: Thank you so much. Yeah, I definitely did that on this album, so I felt like I wasn’t really trying to play it safe this time. And I’ve been guilty of doing that too sometimes, in the past where maybe, not that I was doing it intentionally, but I was just, I don’t know, I would just maybe scared to try things, but I felt like this was the first time I was really just trying fully, with trying everything, you know.
Good for you for taking risks and doing things differently. You mentioned earlier in our conversation how there was some self-doubt going on as you first started this. What do I have to say? What am I going to say? What do I want to say? Do I have anything I want to keep saying? Thankfully, you persevered as a lyricist and songwriter. Do you have any favorite lyrics in these songs?
Alessia Cara: Ooh, very good question. There’s a bunch. Oh man, I wish I wrote them down. I should probably. I like, I mean, there’s some that are more playful, you know, like, in “Slow Motion” when I say, “We flow like Badu, just two fish in the sea.” I feel like that’s a very loaded lyric. There’s a lot of, like, know the two fish reference, which is an Erykah Badu reference. And then we flow, because she flows, but then we flow like fish. Like I like doing little plays on words and like, little Easter eggs for people who catch them. I find that a lot of hip hop artists do that. And I always love when I see a line that has, like, multiple different, like, intentions. So that’s always fun. Then there’s some lines that, like, just emotionally I really like in “Drive,” where I say “sever things that I fight off, let them crack like glass on the sidewalk.” There’s a lot of callback lyrics. Like, I reference gardens a lot.
What else? There’s so many. We were roaming in the desert, found an olive tree. What else? These are just things off the top of my head. I feel like all my lyrics are amazing, but there’s so many that I feel proud of, that I connect with. Not to say “there’s so many great lyrics on my album.”
But at the same time, you should be proud of it. In order to be a professional in anything, you need to believe in yourself. You need to believe in your craft. You need to believe that the stuff that you're putting out into the world has something to say. Closing up, what do you hope listeners take away from Love & Hyperbole? And what have you taken away from creating it and now putting it out?
Alessia Cara: I hope that they take anything at all, of course. I guess. Yeah, the thing that I guess I’m trying to say, and I know I already said this, but I really do feel like this is an album about understanding that you can. That you first of all, need again, pain and loss in order to feel good things in life and understand what true good things really are. But I hope they also take that you can use the pain and you use that contrast for, like, to help you and to move through life in a better way. And I know that those two things sometimes clash, like, happy and sad and pain and joy and, you know, love and hate and all that stuff. But I do think that they can work together and that nothing goes to waste. You shouldn’t regret anything. We’re all a product of everything that’s ever happened to us. And we can use those things, you know, to develop tools and, yeah, new knowledge about life and new wisdom that can allow us to just live life a little bit better and easier.
So I guess that’s the overall thing I hope they take. But, I mean, I hope they take anything, you know, I feel like people are going to interpret these the way that they will and, you know, maybe in different ways than I intended, but it’s all subjective, you know.
What about your own takeaways from making music?
Alessia Cara: My own takeaways are that I, you know, I feel I’m in a much better place with my relationship to the industry and, you know, music in general. I feel now that I just look at it as, like, me being very lucky that I continue, like I can continue to do this after 10 years, that people are still there waiting and, you know, waiting for my new music and still caring and listening to me. And I just feel like I don’t want to take that for granted. I want to just enjoy and not think of the end product when I’m going in and not think of the end product once it’s out. Just let it be what it is and feel proud that I made something that I love. And then I can go to sleep at night knowing that I was totally myself. There’s nothing I left on the table.
And just celebrating that and being excited about that and not worrying about everything else that might come with, you know, the industry, you know, and all the supposed expectations.
Speaking to me now at the very top of 2025, what are your dreams for this album?
Alessia Cara: My dreams, a lot of things. I think ultimately, I just want to be able to, like, perform it in as many parts of the world as I can. Like, taking it all over the world, going to places I’ve never been before, on tour because there’s so many people who listen to my music that have supported me all over the world, in so many parts of the world that I’ve never been. So I would love to take this album to them.
That would be amazing. And yeah, I don’t know, I think that’s honestly it. And that people maybe 10 more years from now are still listening to it and referencing it. That would always be the goal, is that it stands the test of time and that even after I’m gone, there are people, or that there’s someone that will take something from the things that I’ve made.
I know we talked earlier about some of your influences, and you listed a lot of big names. Some of my favorite artists, too. Outside of them, who are you listening to that you would recommend to our readers?
Alessia Cara: Oh, I gotta look through my phone to look because I listen to so much music. Well, first of all, Mk.gee, I know Mk.gee is kind of blowing up already, but he’s wonderful. Dijon is also wonderful. They have such good music. Who else is really good? There’s so many people. There’s a band called Khruangbin. I feel like people obviously know them. They’re, I think, nominated for Best New Artist this year at the Grammys, so they’re already doing well. I’m trying to think of, like, super, super local artists. I have to find, there’s a Canadian band called Babygirl that I really love. They’re a Canadian duo, I believe they’re from Toronto. They’re amazing. They have such good music, too.
Who else? There’s also a sibling group called Infinity Song, and they make a lot of great stuff, too. It’s like folk / folk pop music. It’s really, really good. They remind me of The Carpenters or something. They’re just really great. S
But then also, I love Dijon. I love Laundry Day, too. They’re a band from New York. They’re really sick. Those are just some off the top of my head, but there’s a million and one that I listen to every day.
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