Alessia Cara’s new album “In the Meantime” tells the story of how far she has come in the process of healing her mental health. From early on in her career, the Canadian singer and songwriter has been open about her mental health, needing a therapist and taking medication for her anxiety.

This collection of songs follows a chronological format starting with “Unboxing Intro.” The 41- second opening track jumps right in to speaking about her battle with anxiety and negative thoughts. This theme continues into the second song, “Box in the Ocean,” which speaks upon her bottling emotions and not wanting to turn to family, friends or a professional. Listeners also learn about the artist’s trouble sleeping and feeling alone in her later songs “Sweet Dream” and “Fishbowl.”

By the last track of the album, “Apartment Song,” Cara has a more positive approach toward life. She embraces her loneliness, compares her tears to glitter and comes to terms with her insomnia, using that time when she cannot sleep to write music.

“The real substance of life is made up of ‘meantimes,’” Cara wrote in an Instagram post. “All that we experience between birth and death, pain and joy, heaviness and lightness, old and new, stuck and unstuck, point A and point B and as of last year: worldwide doom and not worldwide doom.”

This is not the first time Cara wrote about her anxiety and overthinking. “Here,” her debut single, is all about the anxiety surrounding feeling uncomfortable in public and “No Scars to your Beautiful,” captures what it’s like to suffer from having low self-esteem.

It is these very topics that make the talented singer relatable to people of all ages. “In the Meantime” is an encouraging collection of tracks that can touch the heart of many. The vulnerability in the cracks of her voice combined with her honest lyrics is what makes this album raw, and the indie pop melodies make each song enjoyable to listen to. The juxtaposition of the melodies and lyrics make this album uplifting despite the sad nature of the words.