Sasha Alex Sloan release new music video โAdultโ and announce new album. โIt was extremely cathartic,โ the singer-songwriter says of her sophomore album.
โCan I say Iโm proud of this album?โ Sasha Alex Sloan poses the question. โItโs terrifying to say that out loud.โ
When I spoke with Consequence over the phone, she seemed cautiously optimistic about the release of her upcoming full-length album, I Blame The World (available Friday, May 13th via RCA Records). Itโs a noteworthy characteristic, especially given her recent description of I Blame the World as a โnon-hopefulโ record.
โI couldnโt write about anything else,โ she adds, referring to the fork in the road many artists came to during the outbreak and in the months since: accept realism or lean towards hopeful escapism. Sloan went with the latter option.
To that end, the eleven-track album is astonishingly cohesive, focusing primarily on the tension and chaos of recent years, as well as the epiphanies that come with processing these events. Expectant listeners got a glimpse of the remainder of the album with the singles โI Blame the Worldโ and โNew Normal,โ while โAdult,โ which is released with a new music video today, May 11th, features a bit of the humor she wants to portray as well.
Lyrics such as โIt finally hurts being hungover/ But itโs still not worse than being soberโ are matched with โNo one ever warned me growing up gets sort of lonely,โ capturing both the humor and the heart of being a young person right now.
โI think Iโm in a better mentality now than when I made the album,โ she says, describing how she recently gave the album a thorough listen and was blown away by what she heard. โAt the time I was writing it, I didnโt even like music.โ Nothing seemed right, this album isnโt right, and the world is on fire.โ Itโs a sensation that virtually every artist can relate to, but luckily for us all, she overcame it.
The song collection that would become I Blame the World took a long time to develop. It began in a more folkloric setting, but Sloan rapidly became tired with it, causing her to switch gears. She ended up writing almost fifty songs for the CD and then had to choose just ten. She also wanted to balance aural pleasure with stories that fall differently on a closer listen; a superficial listen to the album can leave one person feeling elevated, whilst paying attention to the lyrics might lead to a more reflective experience.
A bluesy ballad like โDancing with Your Ghostโ sounds as as at home in Sloanโs repertoire as a more indie-country collaboration with Sam Hunt, โWhen Was It Over.โ Thereโs surely a bit of a double-edged sword that comes with being a songwriter competent across genres. Things became easier as the albumโs topic, principally the challenges of navigating young adulthood in turbulent times, began to take shape.
She later says that the authenticity of Netflixโs Oscar-nominated picture Donโt Look Up from 2021 startled her, and that she recently fell addicted to Apple TVโs sleeper hit Severance. While this album is still lighter in tone than either of those pieces, itโs clear to see how the topics in both can be linked to her current interrogation.
โGetting it all out and then starting living life again was extremely cathartic,โ she adds. โAuthentic adventures and meeting new people motivate me the most โ one of the most difficult aspects of the pandemic was how limited our experiences were.โ Of course, this sentiment extends to touring. Sloan hasnโt been able to go on a headlining tour since 2019, but that will change in July. The artist will tour with Jessie Murph and Slimdan in the late summer/early fall. (Tickets are availableย here.)
That offers fans plenty of time to memorize the words, many of which will be just as cathartic to shout out loud in a crowd. Sloan has a track record to be proud of until then, and she should keep bragging about it.
