Love or Lack Thereof Alessia Cara

• 1 I'm In Trouble 03:43
• 2 Find My Boy (LOLT Version) 05:11
• 3 Not Today (LOLT Version) 03:25
• 4 Ready (LOLT Version) 04:00
• 5 Garden at Nighttime (LOLT Version) 03:48
• 6 Shapeshifter (LOLT Version) 03:56
• 7 Out of Love (LOLT Version) 04:30
• 8 Stay (LOLT Version) 03:20
• 9 Fire (LOLT Version) 04:50
• 10 Obvious (LOLT Version) 04:08
• 11 I'm Yours (LOLT Version) 04:01
• 12 I'm In Trouble 03:40
• Total Runtime 48:32

Info for Love or Lack Thereof

Alessia Cara marks ten years in music with ‘Love Or Lack Thereof’. The 12-track album takes ten of her biggest hits and strips them down to live-off-the-floor jazz and soul arrangements, recorded at Noble Studios in Toronto with longtime collaborator and JUNO nominee Jon Levine. One new original song, “I’m In Trouble,” rounds out the set.

The features here carry real weight. Fellow GRAMMY winner Nelly Furtado appears on “Shapeshifter,” while Norah Jones joins Cara on “I’m In Trouble,” the album’s sole new composition. Two of contemporary music’s most distinct voices stepping into Cara’s catalog is not a small thing, and the results land with warmth and quiet authority.

The catalog being reimagined is genuinely substantial. “Here” peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and moved three million copies. “Scars to Your Beautiful,” “Stay” (with Zedd), and her feature on Logic’s “1-800-273-8255” all added platinum certifications. ‘The Pains of Growing’ won the JUNO for Best Album, and ‘In The Meantime’ drew critical praise from Pitchfork, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times.

Stripping these songs to their bones and running them through jazz and soul arrangements is a confident move, and Cara earns every moment of it. A decade in, she sounds completely at home.

Alessia Cara

Alessia Cara
There’s a new breed of pop star seizing hold of the world’s airwaves and online—more accurately, a conscious-pop star who’s set to subversively top charts and sway hearts and minds. This enigma embodied is 18-year-old Alessia Cara, who’s riding the refrains of her ironic anthem, “Here.” Premiered by The Fader, “Here” garnered over 500,000 total streams in it’s first week, resounding praise for its freshness and insight.

“Here” is unapologetically autobiographical: “‘Here’ is a true story,” Alessia confesses. “It’s a party song, but really it’s the complete opposite of a party song. It’s absolutely me; it shouts out the person in the corner of the party, looking around uncomfortably. I feel like this song narrates what the wallflower is thinking.”

Co-written by Sebastian Kole, “Here” manages to be both cheeky and cautionary. It’s authored from the perspective of an unenthusiastic partygoer who’s counting the minutes till it’s time to leave. “Here” takes aim at mindless revelry and is peppered with lines that touch everyone’s hidden introvert: “I’m sorry if I seem uninterested / Or I’m not listenin’, or I’m indifferent / Truly I ain’t got no business here” and “Excuse me if I seem a little unimpressed with this / An antisocial pessimist, but usually I don’t mess with this” and “Really I would rather be at home all by myself / Not in this room with people who don’t even care about my well being.”

Powerful stuff from a teenage voice; in fact, that’s powerful stuff from anyone who’s ever put pen to pad in name of art. And Alessia’s mature pen game is matched by her larger-than-life voice; she’s dazzlingly chameleon-like, boasting the kind of versatility that will make her a force. In short, Alessia has cause to be confident. But she’s still the bashful, small-town girl even in the big city: “You don’t think you’re ever going to end up here from Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Instead, you think, ‘Who’s going to see me?’ I can’t wrap my head around everything that’s happened: the chemistry with Sebastian, the producers, the label. Def Jam got what I am trying to do: I want my music to be cool and reflective of my influences –Drake, Amy Winehouse, Ed Sheeran– but still new. Def Jam gave me the opportunity to say something meaningful and positive without being preachy. I didn’t expect everything to feel so natural and organic. And I can’t believe how quickly it’s going.”

Alessia is equal parts fresh face, old soul, newcomer, and lifer. She’s going, quickly. Now it’s up to the rest of the world to catch up and catch on.

This album contains no booklet.