Gravity

Album: Better Broken (2025)
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Songfacts®:

  • Sarah McLachlan's "Gravity" is about her first child: daughter India Ann, born in 2002 when McLachlan was married to her drummer, Ashwin Sood (they divorced in 2008). They had what McLachlan describes as a "very combative and fraught relationship" that healed when they went to counseling together. "What I perceived as obstinance or rage was actually masking a ton of anxiety on her part," she explained, adding, "I wrote 'Gravity' as a way of saying to her, 'I've always loved you and want the best for you, and you're perfect the way you are.'"

    In the song, Sarah assures India Ann that she'll always be there for her, true as gravity.
  • McLachlan performed this song before it was released, and she found she had a real connection to it. "It's raw and and visceral, and I feel it so deeply when I'm singing it," she said in an interview with American Songwriter. "The pain of it, but also the joy of where we're at now, because we've been through this heavy, hard time and have come through it and and worked really hard to get to where we're at now, which is so much healthier and better. It's such a a deeper connection."
  • Sarah made very sure her daughter India Ann was OK with this song, asking her at various stages if she was comfortable with it being released. India Ann was fine with it; she's very open about her struggles with anxiety and is happy to get word out about the value of honest communication.
  • The song is part of McLachlan's 2025 album Better Broken. She released a Christmas album in 2016, but her last album of original songs was Shine On in 2014. A lot of those 11 years between original albums was spent raising India Ann and her other daughter, Taja Summer. She was also busy with her Sarah McLachlan School of Music, which set up music-based after school programs for kids in various parts of her native Canada.
  • McLachlan played the piano on this track, backed with a string section arranged by Patrick Warren, whose work can also be heard on songs by Fiona Apple, Michelle Branch and Ray LaMontagne. Shere's also an upright bass by Sebastian Steinberg and synthesizer by Benny Bock. The Better Broken album was produced by Tony Berg and Will Maclellan, a change for McLachlan, who since 1991 had used Pierre Marchand in that role.
  • McLachlan wrote this song with the singer-songwriter Luke Doucet - they also teamed on another track from the album, "Rise." Doucet, a fellow Canadian, was McLachlan's touring guitarist for a while in the '90s.
  • The video was directed by Lauren Wade and shot outdoors in what appears to be Vancouver Island, where McLachlan owns a home. Nature is very important to McLachlan, who spends a lot of time outside regardless of the weather. You'll pick up a lot of nature imagery in her lyrics; note the "wild weeds and lush, tangled ground" in this song.

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