Alessia Cara has returned to the spotlight with Love & Hyperbole, her fourth studio album, released on February 14, 2025, via Def Jam. Marking what she calls her "best work to date," this album is a refined, immersive journey through love’s complexities, heartbreak, and self-reflection, all wrapped in Cara’s signature blend of pop, R&B, and funk-inspired production and done in her confessional songwriting style. With fourteen tracks that explore vulnerability and confidence in equal measure, Love & Hyperbole, proves to be a defining statement in her already impressive discography.
From the moment Love & Hyperbole kicks off with the energetic "Go Outside!," it's clear that Alessia Cara has embraced an evolved sound that still feels authentically her. The album weaves together elements of funk—heard on tracks like "Run Run," and "Garden Interlude"—stripped-back acoustic moments ("Drive"), and soul-baring indie pop ("Clearly"). While "Dead Man," one of the standout singles, offers a brooding, bass-driven groove that captures the unravelling of a once-loving relationship, "Slow Motion" sees Cara experimenting with jazz textures, her sultry vocals floating effortlessly over minimal yet impactful instrumentals.
Perhaps the most surprising moment of the whole album comes with "(Isn’t It) Obvious," featuring a striking guitar solo from the one and only John Mayer. With Yakob’s production guiding the track’s breezy R&B feel, the song’s warmth and lyricism reflect the undeniable pull of true affection: "Fears are only constellations, only glowing if we make them." It’s a clever, evocative turn of phrase that showcases Cara’s continued strength as a lyricist. Collaborating with John Mayer was a dream come true for Alessia, and something she doesn't tend to do much, more rather than collaborate on other artists' songs. "That was like the coolest thing ever," proclaims Alessia with a smile. "John Mayer is incredible, and he's one of my lyrical idols and musician idols, in general. Working with him was an out-of-body experience. Even now, when I hear it, I cannot believe that that's him and that it's my song that I'm hearing him on."
Additionally, at first, Mayer wasn't sure if the guitar solo he was giving to the track was too long or not. Alessia jokes, "I feel like if he played for five minutes, I would have left it on." She continues, "He was reluctant at first to share that. He's like, 'Is this too much? Like, should I?' and I'm like, 'Are you kidding? Like, It's you! Can you please play on the whole song?,'" she laughs. "It was amazing. I loved him so much and it was so fun to get to work with him and see how he works in person." In terms of collaborating with artists in the future, she hasn't ruled it out and has intentions of doing it a bit more. "In terms of collaborating with other people, it's always so fun to do that. I know I don't do that a ton. I kind of jump on other people's music more than I have people on mine. And I think that's just a result of me being a little shy and being afraid to ask people things. I do want to do that more in the future," she reveals.
Since her 2015 breakout hit "Here," Alessia Cara has built a reputation for writing songs that capture the nuances of emotional highs and the lowest of lows. Love & Hyperbole is no exception to this. "Fire" is one of the album’s most emotionally charged tracks, embodying the euphoria of deep, consuming love. "Fire" is actually the first love song Alessia has ever written without any fear attached to it, something she has become known for in her songwriting. "That to me is the first time I've ever written a love song without any sort of fear attached to it or any sort of negativity or stubbornness around it," she confesses. "I always feel like when I go to write love songs, there's always an angle of melancholy or fear, or I always have to put a negative spin on it because that's just how my brain works. I think this song feels super personal to me because it's the first time that I've written about love in a happy free way without any inhibitions or fear of anything, it's just like a love letter. It's a lot more scary for me to talk about being in love in a lighter sense. I don't know how to explain it. It just feels more naked." Whereas, the track "Subside" delves into existential pondering, backed by acoustic guitars and a punchy drum beat. Cara’s ability to craft intimate yet universally relatable songs remains one of her greatest strengths.
Tracks like "Nighttime Thing"Â showcase an impressive blend of lush string arrangements and groovy basslines, making it a standout moment on the record. Meanwhile, "Feels Right"Â seamlessly fuses indie pop, alternative rock, and R&B influences, reinforcing her knack for sonic versatility.
Reflecting on the album’s creation, Cara shared, "Every project so far has felt like a step in the right direction, but this album felt more like a leap." That leap is evident in the craftsmanship of Love & Hyperbole—a mature, self-assured, and deeply personal project that cements Alessia Cara as a dynamic force in modern music today.
Closing out the album with "Clearly," an uplifting anthem built around summery acoustic guitars and a pulsating drum beat, the album ends on a note of hope and renewal. As she sings about mending relationships and finding clarity, it’s evident that Love & Hyperbole is not just an album about love—it’s about growth, self-discovery, and the beauty in both the highs and the heartbreaks that come with it. Sonically, Love & Hyperbole is also what Alessia has stated as a leap ahead, keeping the sounds unapologetically her, while branching out to new territories. Love & Hyperbole showcases the unique blend of pop and R&B that new and old listeners have come to know her for, but intertwining elements of the 60s, 70s, and 80s rock, funk, and soul into the mix. She shares, "When I'm looking for a fresh perspective or fresh inspiration, I always tend to go back in time." So for Love & Hyperbole, Alessia dug into her love of Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder, and more. "I love Fleetwood Mac, so I was listening to a lot of them, a lot of Stevie Nicks, a lot of Joni Mitchell, a lot of Otis Redding and Stevie Wonder...a lot of Billy Joel, Beatles, Bob Dylan, you know, just a bunch of legends," she says. A lot of the visuals, including the album's artwork include vibrant shades of red, these translate to the album in many ways to the song's overarching themes of love. "I have always related with colours and shapes and sort of whole universes to every song and every project of mine. I don't know if that's related to the thing I have called synesthesia, which always sounds fake and weird, but it's very true and real for me. I do have this thing where I see colours when I hear sounds," Alessia shares. "That's always helped be a catalyst for what I want the different album worlds to look like. The obvious answer would be love is, you know, we see the imagery of red when it comes to Valentine's Day and love." However, these reds throughout the visuals of Alessia's album do have symbolism that dives further past the music itself. "I also think red, especially that specific wine colour that's on the album cover felt very sophisticated and rich...the contrast of that, the warmth and the cool tones, are very indicative of what the album means to me, which is all about contrast and how we need contrast in life," she acknowledges. "It's the negative and positive working in tandem. It felt like the right thing to represent the music and it just feels like how the album feels to me, this kind of like rich, more sophisticated version of myself." While writing the album, Alessia hit the studio unlike what he had done before. In the past, Alessia would have to get into the studio with an idea or a song already done out of fear of saying something stupid in front of someone and the fear of wasting their time by doing so. "I'm mostly a very shy person, especially when it comes to writing and my songwriting. I'm very close to the chest, very precious about everything that I do," Alessia discloses. With the songwriting potion of Love & Hyperbole, Alessia broke out of her comfort zone in a drastic way and approached it with a new view. "The personal breakthrough for me on this album was just going in with a stranger and having nothing to say at first and just trying things in front of them and mumbling and saying stupid ideas or saying any idea, and if it was bad, it was bad...and just not being too precious about it and just allowing myself to write freely in front of someone else and not worry about wasting someone's time." On the production side of things, unlike her last record or two, she was able to jam, perform, and record with the musicians who performed the instruments on the record in person. Alessia shares, "The fact that I had the chance to record, I want to say, 90 percent of this album live with live musicians in the room. I was actually able to be there and travel to these places and work with these musicians in person. We had an orchestra, we had string players, a horn section, and a bunch of musicians that came in and we got to feed off of each other's energy." She continues, "You get a different outcome when you're all in the room together. There's nothing quite like a bunch of people jamming. I feel like that's how music's supposed to be. So I'm really glad I got to do that for this album."
With this latest album release, Alessia Cara has delivered a cohesive, resonant album that highlights her evolution as both an artist and a storyteller. Love & Hyperbole is not just a collection of songs—it’s an experience that invites listeners into Cara’s world, where love is messy, beautiful, and, above all, deeply human.
