Skylar Grey Announces New Album, Release Date

A steady build-up towards a new album came to a crucial point: Skylar revealed the title, cover art, and release date for her upcoming project.

Homecoming

She gave it the name Wasted Potential, echoing the line from one of her earlier singles for this album, “Motivation”. So far, there are three singles: “Nirvana”, “Motivation”, and “Come”. All are beautifully melodic and rhythmically deceptively simple. However, behind bouncy beats lies a deeper story of rediscovering yourself and rebuilding a relationship with music.

On these songs and, most probably, on the album, Skylar goes back to her roots, both sonically and quite literally, travelling back to her childhood home in Minnesota. The music she loved back then found its way onto the album, giving it a slightly nostalgic, comforting, reassuring feel. But Skylar does not use it just for flavour, she looks back at what gave her inspiration, drive to move forward, and, eventually, a heartbreak.

Relationship Status

It seems at times that the main romantic storyline in Skylar’s catalogue is about music itself. Being from a family of musicians, Skylar started performing so early that she might not even remember a time in her life when she did not see herself as an artist. But the path to success proved to be brutal, leading her from. She was in her early 20s when she wrote “Love The Way You Love”. A song about not being able to resolve a toxic relationship with the world of music. Later, she talked about it in an interview:

The song itself was very personal. I never had written a track before. Alex [Da Kid] sent me this track, and I just sang whatever I felt over it, you know? It was a very personal lyric based on my experience, not only with my ex-boyfriend but also with the music industry. Feeling like there was something in me that loved to be tortured and loved the misery, because I kept getting sucked back into situations. That’s what “Love The Way You Lie” was about. Then a month later it was the No. 1 song. Eminem had cut it. Rihanna had cut it. I was broke living in a cabin in the woods and this was all happening and suddenly I had the biggest song in the world as a songwriter. Fucking crazy.

Since then, she went through more ups and downs, riding the wave of success of “Love The Way You Lie”, releasing an album executive produced by Eminem, Don’t Look Down, losing rights on her music catalogue, getting back up and working again as an independent artist. Releasing a song for the Venom franchise as a writer, producer, and singer, and getting her first Billboard Hot 100 entry as a lead artist. And then hitting a wall again with a writing block. With this new project, Skylar, in her own words, is “restoring passion and drive for music”.

You can judge how it is going by the first three singles and then start looking forward to May 22, when Wasted Potential becomes available in its entirety.

Waiting for a Miracle

For some, every Skylar’s new project gives hope. Her creative union with Eminem is incredibly fruitful, resulting in over a dozen songs; they go on tour together. Skylar has become the first woman to have production credits on an Eminem song. Moreover, there is only one album since 2010 (Kamikaze) that does not list Skylar as a collaborator. So, expecting a new feature from Eminem is not completely unreasonable. Especially, because thematically, Eminem’s sound might work within this album’s story. Whether it happens or not, only time will tell.