STACK #251 September 2025

MUSIC FEATURE

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CALIFORNIA DREAMING DREAMING T he ’80s pop icon Belinda Carlisle found a fan in the late Brian Belinda Carlisle delivers a classy collection of covers.

Ironically, the wandering vocalist has lived in Mexico City for four years following a spell in Thailand. “I don’t wanna ever move again. I’m 100% happy here.” Carlisle started contemplating OUATIC in 2017. “I thought, ‘I kind of wanna do a covers album’, but I didn’t know what it was going to be.” The concept crystallised during COVID when Carlisle introduced her karaoke-style Saturday Serenades on Instagram. “It really got me thinking

Wilson. The Beach Boys leader attended her shows, and she contributed backing vocals to his albums. In turn, Wilson lent his surfie harmonies to her single California off 1996’s A Woman and a Man . “It was probably one of the most emotional days of my life, and of my career, absolutely,” Carlisle reminisces. “He created a symphony on his own in that vocal booth when he sang all his parts.” The Californian pays tribute to Wilson’s legacy, and captures faded nostalgia, on her sublime new covers album, Once Upon a Time in California ( OUATIC ) – lushly produced by Gabe Lopez. She personalises ten Golden State radio classics, including The Hollies’ The Air That I Breathe (via Albert Hammond), Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s Anyone Who Had a Heart (originally recorded by Dionne Warwick), and The Carpenters-popularised Superstar , but always “kept the integrity of the song”.

Photo credit: Albert Sanchez Photo credit: Kharen Hil

Once Upon a Time in California by Belinda Carlisle is out now via Rocket

Belinda Carlisle

in my life, it’s about just doing things that I’m excited about and that inspire me.” Carlisle launched her career in the late ’70s, fronting the new wave all-female band The Go Go’s (the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers recently reuniting for Coachella), before going solo. Today, Carlisle’s bittersweet influence is pervasive. Rick Nowels, who produced 1987’s breakthrough Heaven on Earth , subsequently worked with Lana Del Rey on songs like Summertime Sadness – her aesthetic similar. Carlisle is an admirer. “Actually, out of all the female artists, I think she’s my favourite. She’s the most interesting.” Cyclone Wehner

about all the songs that I grew up with. I thought, ‘This has to be an album of the songs that inspired me to be a singer and that informed my taste in music.’” OUATIC is Carlisle’s first English-language LP since A Woman and a Man , after which she pursued global – and more singular – projects like 2007’s French chanson collection, Voila . “I’m not interested in being on a hamster wheel and churning out hits anymore,” she laughs. “I mean, I’ve been there, done that, and I did a good job. But I think, at this point

RESURFACING Canadian superstar Sarah McLachlan makes a stunning return, releasing her first album of original material in 11 years.

Better

Broken by Sarah McLachlan is out Sep 19 via Universal

S arah McLachlan has sold more than 40 million albums. But One in a Long Line , on her new album Better Broken , features the telling line: “I fought hard to know myself.” “I think it’s a struggle that I’ve had my whole life,” Sarah confides in a revealing chat with STACK . “I’ve had this ridiculous career, but I grew up with a really healthy dose of self-loathing, and then imposter syndrome. I always thought that someone would come along and go, ‘Ha ha, just kidding.’ “I’m a product of my mother, who had a ton of emotional challenges.

My mum created an environment where I was her best friend, and she could be my only friend. It was really dysfunctional, but I didn’t understand that until I was a lot older. It’s taken me years to be OK with myself. “I know that seems ridiculous on the outside because I have been very successful. But there are still days when I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m such a f-cking loser, I’m such a mess.’ “I think a lot of that is what propels me forward, propels me to do better. Every day is a gift – I get to get up and not make the same stupid mistake I made yesterday.” Jeff Jenkins

Sarah McLachlan

FAIR GO

One in a Long Line is in the new doco Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery , about the all-female festival that Sarah founded in the ’90s. “It’s so good,” she smiles. “I felt huge nostalgia [watching it], huge pride. And I was freshly p-ssed off. I look at the state of the world today and it feels like we’re rushing backwards. “The big question is, ‘Are you going to do this again?’ I’m not. I think if it were to happen again, it needs to be someone of today. But Brandi Carlile is doing it. Taylor Swift is doing it. There are all these women who are bringing other women alongside them, creating platforms for their sisters. And that’s what Lilith was all about.”

STAMPED Sarah McLachlan is so big in Canada, she got her own stamp last year. “I told my kids and they were like, ‘Yeah, so?’ I said, ‘C’mon, this is a big deal – there are kings and queens on stamps!’ And they were like, ‘What do you even use them for?’”

12 SEPTEMBER 2025

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