Sarah McLachlan Better Broken
Consensus is still forming across 3 professional reviews. Sarah McLachlan's Better Broken arrives as a late-career statement that balances vulnerability and stubborn resilience, and critics largely agree it marks a meaningful, if imperfect, comeback. Across three professional reviews the record earned a 73.33/100 consensus score, with praise centering on intimate piano-led mo
The title track is best for its comforting vocals and emotional centrality.
The quick verdict from the critical consensus: not all songs land, but several stand out as essential listening.
Best for listeners looking for comeback and resilience, starting with Gravity and Better Broken.
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Full consensus notes
Sarah McLachlan's Better Broken arrives as a late-career statement that balances vulnerability and stubborn resilience, and critics largely agree it marks a meaningful, if imperfect, comeback. Across three professional reviews the record earned a 73.33/100 consensus score, with praise centering on intimate piano-led moments and lyrical candor. The quick verdict from the critical consensus: not all songs land, but several stand out as essential listening.
Reviewers consistently point to the title track “Better Broken” and the elegiac “Gravity” as the collection's emotional core, while “If This Is the End” emerges as the album's most defiant, apocalyptic turn. Critics also name “Long Road Home” and the duet “Reminds Me (feat. Katie Gavin)” as notable highlights. Themes that recur in professional reviews include personal struggles and motherhood, political commentary and women’s rights, and a throughline of accepting damage as strength. Production choices - spare piano, strings, and occasional pedal steel - frame McLachlan's poetic lyricism, helping songs register as intimate and, at times, sweeping.
Yet consensus notes mixed moments: some tracks feel over-polished or emotionally unearned, tempering claims of a full rebirth. While two reviews applaud the album's soothing, consolatory moments, one cautions that not every song sustains the record's best impulses. Taken together, Better Broken stands as a resilient chapter in McLachlan's catalog, offering standout songs and thematic weight that make it worth listening to for fans and newcomers alike, with detailed reviews below.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Gravity
3 mentions
"Even more potent is “Gravity,” a piano ballad in the vein of McLachlan’s 1998 hit “Angel"— Slant Magazine
Better Broken
2 mentions
"The midtempo title track is a standout, comforting with her familiar angelic vocal highs and soothing low end."— AllMusic
If This Is the End…
3 mentions
"Meanwhile, the intense declaration "If This Is the End…" churns with finger-plucked guitar, martial drums, and a shiver-inducing group plea"— AllMusic
Even more potent is “Gravity,” a piano ballad in the vein of McLachlan’s 1998 hit “Angel
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Better Broken
Gravity
The Last to Go
Only Way Out Is Through
Reminds Me (feat. Katie Gavin)
One In a Long Line
Only Human
Long Road Home
Rise
Wilderness
If This Is the End…
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 3 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Sarah McLachlan's Better Broken reads like a late-career balm, and the reviewer's eye lingers on the best songs: the midtempo title track “Better Broken” and the sumptuous “Gravity”. The critic relishes how “Better Broken” comforts with angelic highs and a soothing low end, and calls “Gravity” a piano-and-string-backed gem about family struggles. Other highlights named include the swelling peak of “Long Road Home” and the rousing unity call of “Rise”, all framed as evidence that this comeback truly matters. The tone is warm, measured, and grateful, arguing these best tracks make the album a timely, sweeping return.
Key Points
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The title track is best for its comforting vocals and emotional centrality.
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The album's core strengths are warm, timely songwriting, strong production, and emotional resonance.
Themes
Critic's Take
Sarah McLachlan's Better Broken finds its strongest moments in songs like “Better Broken” and “If This Is the End”, where vulnerability becomes defiance. The title track sets the record's DNA early, making the case that cracks can be strengths rather than shame. “If This Is the End” is named the album's most powerful statement, apocalyptic and strangely comforting.
Key Points
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The best song is "If This Is the End" because it is called the record's most powerful, apocalyptic yet comforting statement.
Themes
Critic's Take
Since the late 1990s, Sarah McLachlan has drifted toward polished adult-pop, and on Better Broken her strongest moments are intimate piano and folk-inflected songs. The best songs on Better Broken are clearly “Gravity,” whose elegiac piano and candid lines about motherhood mark it as a standout, and “Long Road Home,” whose upright bass and washed synths recall Marchand-era textures. Less successful moments, like “One In a Long Line” and “Rise,” feel either unearned or Pollyannaish, which keeps the album from fully landing as a creative rebirth. Still, McLachlan’s poetic lyricism and occasional textured arrangements make several tracks among the best songs on Better Broken and worth repeated listens.
Key Points
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“Gravity” is the best song for its elegiac piano and candid lyrics about motherhood.
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The album’s core strengths are McLachlan’s poetic lyricism and occasional textured arrangements that lift otherwise workmanlike songs.