Lorelei Marcell Reflects on the Heartbreak that Served as a Catalyst for Life Change in “Bittersweet Stages” LP

The moment we’ve all been waiting for; indie pop darling Lorelei Marcell concludes a consistent string of new releases with her highly anticipated full length LP “Bittersweet Stages”. Featuring the lead single “Break Your Heart” in collaboration with Misty Boyce (Sara Bareilles, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran), the “Bittersweet Stages” LP was not only titled after one of her most beloved hits; when naming the album she felt that the essence of the word perfectly captured 2022, including the turbulence of her recent heartbreak. When reflecting on her heartbreak, she rejected the societal expectation to feel resentment against this person. Feeling pressure to put out music that embodied the ‘they’re broken and I’m not’ sentiment or the predictable elaboration on her potential fear of eternal loneliness seemed all too expected. Instead, she found herself grappling with these two polarizing feelings; in her words, she was “ultimately longing for pieces of my past that were no longer present, while feelings of empathy seemingly blindsided me, preventing me from feeling angry, even though I really wanted to feel angry. That’s when I came to this idea of “bittersweetness.”

Thankful for how some of her darkest moments shaped her into the person that she is today, she recognizes how pain can lead to transformation and with this, Lorelei writes:

“Having fully processed my emotions has given me the agency to look back on the beautiful and found experiences, and not just erase everything from my mind amidst the hardships that I went through. Self love is a paradox to loneliness – it is a transformative and necessary state.”

“This album has given me the space and permission that I needed to move forward and not only start a new chapter in my personal growth, but it inspired me to also start a new chapter within my songwriting career. By reinventing my perspective on relationships, I started collecting ways to implement these messages into my music. My debut LP, Bittersweet Stages, is a manifestation of this transformation. Each song is a stepping stone into the next, just like the album, as a whole, is a stepping stone to future projects. You can’t have “Bittersweet Stages” without “Stranger” or “Where Do I Go?” Each song serves as a singular piece of the larger story that is the past two years of my life, and the collective journey of falling in love, falling out of love, and self discovery.”

Listen to the “Bittersweet Stages” LP on Spotify here.

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