Sara Bareilles talks new album and we have one question — will she write us a love song?

Praise be to the patron saints of our music libraries, Sara Bareilles will release a new pop album this year. She’s one of our all time fave singer/songwriter types since she stole our hearts by refusing to write us a love song (yeah, we’re still wondering about that, too). And tragically for all of us, she hasn’t released a new album since The Blessed Unrest in 2013. That’s FOUR WHOLE YEARS, ya’ll. Sara has been super busy, though, doing ~casual~ things like writing the music and lyrics for the Broadway show Waitress. NBD.

Now she’s refocusing on her upcoming solo album, but she’s definitely come away from her Broadway experience with some new wisdom and insight, which we love.

Theatre is an incredibly collaborative medium, and Sara seems to have taken that to heart. “The biggest lesson I learned was coming back to the theme of collaboration and finding the right partners to fold into the creative process,” she told EW. But that’s not all she learned.

“Another wonderful gift of working in theater is there are really no rules. Working in pop music, you accidentally fall into patterns of trying to slip into a certain form or format and with theater, it’s just all about the storytelling. I loved the freedom of that and hopefully, I can bring some of that playfulness and freedom into whatever comes out next for me.

We love that Sara took her foray into Broadway as a learning experience, and seems to be growing from it. Artists have to, y’know, experience many walks of life to comment on it, and since Sara Bareilles is one of our favorite lyrical commentators from way back, we’re looking forward to hearing what she has to say with her refreshed perspective.