Sara Bareilles is a major talent. She is one of the best singer / songwriters and her tunes are absolutely beautiful. So how wonderful that her fans have been given an even better glimpse into who she is with her memoir / collection of essays, "Sounds Like Me"
Personally I am a massive Sara fan. Her lyrics speak to me. When I first heard, "Love Song" I was sold. "Gravity" resonated deep with a relationship I was in at the time. I couldn't get enough of "King Of Anything", "Brave" has to be an anthem for a generation and "Manhattan" was the song I listened to during my longest relationship broke down. She is a genius and when I got to see her perform in Melbourne a few years ago, it was a dream come true - so this book was everything I wanted and more.
The good news, Sara can write. She may have struggled getting her thoughts out, she was very candid with that - but the end result is beautiful. She lets down her guard and really lets us see her, warts and all. It is not a full memoir, more a series of essays, but she covers all the important stuff. All the stuff the fans want to read, how she got into music and the stories behind her hits and the writing of her wonderful musical.
Sara has a wonderful self deprecating quality and her frank honesty is refreshing. It is such an easy book to read, I knocked it over pretty fast and I wasn't even trying too hard. There's laughs, there's even a few tears but most of all, it's inspiring. Sara is an inspiring figure, always has been, but reading her words had even more of an effect.
From her childhood where she felt like the fat kid (kids can be cruel), to her parents divorce and then her first heartbeat and her days at Uni starting to play music - it was great to read about her formative years. Then, knowing everyone tells the same story (I've told it to people), she sets the record straight about her single, "Love Song". We've all thought it was aimed at her record company when they demanded she write a love song. Well the story is so much more detailed than that and you really need to read the book to find it out. But I wonder if that songwriter that made her feel so bad has seen how successful her career has become? I hope so, though I'm sure people that awful never lose their shitty self belief!!
The story of her great song, "Brave", is also riveting. It really was a great journey in creating the song and she beautifully tells us she was sure it was going to be massive, but fizzled a little on the charts. The self deprecation was beautiful. But then there was the relief that the song ended up speaking to so many people, and hey, here in Australia it is her biggest hit, reaching number 3.
This is a great Christmas gift to a loved one, or to yourself. Sara has a beautiful writing style, it was always evident with her heartbreaking lyrics. Sometimes autobiographies are just an excursion into back patting, self love and blame sharing, but this is an honest, open and lovely self look at an awesome artist. Highly recommended.
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