In The Meantime Tracklist
In the Meantime is the third studio album by Grammy Award-winning singer, Alessia Cara. Much like her previous effort, every track is completely written by herself.
Two promotional singles, “Sweet Dream” and “Shapeshifter” were released simultaneously on July 15, 2021. There is only one feature on the album, which is a team-up with rapper, CHIKA.
The overarching theme is two sides of a coin with Alessia being the coin. Duality is spread evenly across the mostly-chronological tracklist. The aesthetic visuals for the album mirror its whimsical production and lyrical content, as Alessia shares her experiences in a robust way. Its title represents what she has been up to in the meantime between life and death.
Leading up to the album’s release, she posted an acrostic message. Her fandom deciphered it quickly as “ITM” or “In the meantime.” Another hint was in the music video for “Shapeshifter”. On August 31, 2021 she sent out an email to her listeners, prompting them to ‘explore’. The artwork included in the email displayed multiple clocks on the wall, which their hands hinted at the release date. Two days later on September 2, 2021, she revealed the official title and date.
“In The Meantime” Q&A
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Translations
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What has the artist said about the album?
I wrote the first song for the album unknowingly when I was on tour in 2019. The creative process for this album, from the beginning to the middle and end was very different in terms of what the world looked like and what my life personally looked like. […] I started on tour, being all over the place, travelling, and in the middle of it the whole world had changed. As a result, the entire album creation process had to completely change too. I had to rely a lot on myself and my own production skills. I did a lot more with local Canadian producers. In fact, a lot of the vocals on the album were done in my bedroom.
–via Schön! Magazine
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What has Alessia Cara said about the album cover?
[…] so that’s me literally in a plastic ball. I was actually in that thing. And I wanted me to kind of represent the fish in the bowl, and I wanted the blue sky in the background to represent the endless possibilities and the fact that even though you feel stuck and you feel trapped, there’s always, you know, there’s never actually a ceiling on there. There’s just endless ways your life could go.
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When did Cara make the album?
She told Billboard in September 2021:
The only song that I wrote pre-lockdown was ‘Shapeshifter.’ I started that in 2019 and then finished it in 2020 right before the pandemic happened. Then the rest was written in quarantine or remotely or mid-craziness.
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What is Cara's favorite song/s on the album?
Cara answered this question on her Twitter replying to the tweet “What’s your favorite song.”:
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Was the album teased before its release?
Yes, the album’s title was first “revealed” on a series of posts uploaded to Alessia Cara’s Instagram profile between the dates July 18 to July 22, 2021. If you add the first few letters of each post’s caption, it spells the album’s title, In The Meantime.
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Is there official animated artwork?
Yes, Apple Music features animated artwork for this release.
