"To me, where the wild things are is a place that exists in our minds. It's a place of liberty and shamelessness. It can take a split second or a lifetime to find it, but once you do, you'll be free. " - Alessia Cara, Wild Things
Hi, and welcome to The Sonic Heart. 🤗
My name is Palesa Moletsane, but you can call me Black Lotus.
You guys know that famous TikTok sound that goes "If she has a million fans, I'm one of them. If she has one fan, that's me. And if she has no fans, I'm dead" neh? That's me with the beautiful beam of light that is Alessia Cara.
Alessia Caracciolo, popularly and professionally known as Alessia Cara, is a 27-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter. Alessia gained popularity when she began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13, and she shot to fame after being discovered by the daughter of record executive and EP Entertainment founder, Tony Perez, when she did a cover of "Sweater Weather" by The Neighbourhood. Perez offered her studio time to write and record soon after, and she signed with EP Entertainment and Def Jam Recordings in 2014.
If there's one thing in this life I truly appreciate, it has to be the fact that I discovered Alessia Cara when I did. This was with the release of her debut single, the song for everyone who secretly hates parties, Here and subsequently her debut album, Know-It-All, in 2015.
Know-It-All (2015). Image via alessiacara.com
As someone who was not popular or even "cool" growing up, I found a comforting relation to Here. Too comforting for my liking, I'd say. I think, at that point, I had already begun to sort of resent myself for not being likable enough to make or keep friends. As much as (almost) everyone loved me, I can't really say I had close friends because most of the friendships I had managed to make at that time frizzled into nothingness at the end of the day.
So here I am, fresh out of high school, with a shot of gap year depression, teen-mom-to-a-toddler stress (PS, teenage pregnancy is wrong), and just constantly worrying about things that I've come to realize were really insignificant in my life (oh young me, if only you knew), so my existence was definitely not all that. Trust me, when your mind is trying to process all this sh*t at the same damn time, your body just tries to keep up and THAT made the idea of parties a wild one. Another thing, what am I gonna say to my mom? Issa lot, bro!
On the off chance that I actually get a "visa" and go out, I'm just there, probably cold and alone in the corner. Or worse, cold and in the corner with a boy hoping to get lucky. So...it would only make sense that I stayed and enjoyed the comfort of my own home, right? Nope, I still went out and put myself through the cold, awkward conversations and just...people peopling. No shade, guys.
All of a sudden, here comes this girl, singing about her experience at/with parties and I understand exactly what she is feeling. I hear her. I feel her. I feel seen. I remember asking myself how it was possible to relate to almost everything this girl said, how is it that we've had similar experiences although we are literally in different parts of the world. That's when I went on my Alessia Cara deep dive and met my unofficial best friend through Know-It-All. There was something about the way she articulated her feelings through her perfectly written words and how they just seamlessly weaved into the sound. Know-It-All became the soundtrack to my life and when I discovered that she and I were the same age, it finally made sense why I related so much to her.
Fun fact: our birthdays are anagrams of each other - she's 11/07 and I'm 07/11, same year.
In 2018, Alessia released The Pains of Growing, an album that I personally consider her best body of work to date. The Pains of Growing is a very emotional album and touches on faith, love, heartbreak, anxiety, and the inevitable struggle of entering and navigating adulthood.
I was in my early 20s when this album came out and I remember making a Facebook post about how I thought everyone in their early 20s should listen to the album simply because I, in my early 20s, could find so much of myself in her music. With each song, I found myself not only entangled in the sweet melody of her voice but also in her writing. Anyone who knows me can attest to just how much vocals mean to me but nothing, and I mean nothing in the world, sweeps me like beautiful vocals on beautifully woven words, and because Alessia writes most (if not all) of her music, she was a special one for me.
The Pains of Growing LP (2018). Image via alessiacara.com
There's one song in particular from The Pains of Growing that has always tugged at my heartstrings and challenged my thinking, and one I consider my all-time favorite Alessia Cara song, 7 Days. In the song, Alessia explores the concept of religion vs. faith as well as the concept of the seven days in which God created the earth. At the time, I was still a fully-fledged Christian and I'm sure there are other people who can attest to how annoying it can be that every other "Christian" song portrayed a “perfect relationship” with God, forgetting that human beings are infallible and in reality, most of us spend a lot of our time questioning what’s actually going on up there. It was so refreshing to hear a song that addressed the vulnerability of our faith.
During the iHeartRadio Album Release Party on 28 November 2018, Alessia explained that she wrote the song during a time when you could not go on social media or turn on the news without seeing something frustrating, and we can all agree that not much has changed since then.
"I was raised in a Catholic household, and I wanted to have a conversation with whoever is up there… like, ‘Are you mad at us? What is the purpose? We need some help', and I wanted to ask God if we were worth those seven days", said Alessia. She explained that the song was her way of finding some sort of silver lining in all of this, to say at least whoever’s watching is entertained because it sure as hell is incredibly chaotic down here.
Still from ‘You Let Me Down’ music video by Alessia Cara, directed by Dario, via YouTube.
2021 brought with it the release of In The Meantime, her third and most recent studio album. The concept of the album tackles the dreaded question of "So, what now? What do I do in the meantime?" in reference to the meantime between life and death and it unravels the anxieties of introspection, healing, love, and self-reflection.
With ITM, I got to see a mature and self-aware woman in Alessia, handling themes of mental health, life & death, life as well as love and heartbreak as a spectrum. I got to experience the life changes she went through between 2018 and 2021. At the time of the release of the album, I could not relate much to the songs that relayed the message of heartbreak and healing but having recently gone through a break-up and revisiting the album, I get it. I completely get it and that is the core of the relationship I share with Alessia since her music career started, she somehow has the words to properly articulate the feelings I cannot always vocalize. It's like having someone who says, "Hey, don't worry. I've been there and I can help you through this.", expecting nothing in return. It's a beautiful feeling.
In The Meantime LP (2021). Image via alessiacara.com
The album features another one of Alessia's best songs to date, Best Days. The emotionally fueled song is centered around the struggle of being honest with oneself about who they are becoming, wondering if they have lived the best days of their life and left them behind her. In a 2021 Zach Sang Show interview, Alessia explained that the song was formed by a lyric to a bridge she had written for another song on the album, and her producer, Jon Levine, advised her not to “waste the lyric on a bridge," to make a whole separate song, creating a beautiful song that now has its own identity. The song explores themes of self-discovery, nostalgia, and the bittersweet reflection on past experiences, and the lyrics are introspective and relatable, touching on themes of heartbreak, loneliness, and acceptance.
Still from ‘Best Days’ music video by Alessia Cara, directed by Tusk, via YouTube.
"What if my best days are the days I've left behind?
And what if the rest stays the same for all my life?
I'm runnin' with my eyes closed, so it goes.
You live and then you die.
But the hardest pill to swallow is the meantime.
Are the best days just the ones that we survive?"
- Alessia Cara, Best Days
Alessia Cara's performance of "Scars To Your Beautiful" at the 2017 MTV VMAs. Credit: GettyImages
2023 and 3 albums later, I still listen to Alessia's music and go "Man, she gets me!" like she's my best friend in the whole world. I'm so grateful that I got, and still get, to grow with her in her music journey and that almost a decade later, I still find so much of myself in her music. Above all else, Alessia is such a beautiful human being. She has a very genuine heart that is reflected through the music she does, which not only addresses the complexities of navigating life in this day and age but also promotes the healing of said complexities.
In lieu of our 27th birthday, I've compiled a list of 27 of my all- time favorite Alessia Cara songs (including features):
Who is your "if she has no fans, I'm dead" artist? What drew you to their art? What do you love most about the artist? Let me know!
Still from ‘Wild Things’ music video by Alessia Cara, directed by Aaron A, via YouTube.
"There's a wild thing that exists in all of us. It lives in our passions, in the people we love, in our subconscious thoughts, our beliefs... It's even made a home in the darkest parts of us. But we can't be scared of it, we have to become it." - Alessia Cara, Wild Things
With love, music and all things artsy fartsy.
- Palesa "Black Lotus" Moletsane
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