Hear Alessia Cara’s Bittersweet New Song ‘Not Today’

Alessia Cara ruminates on future peace and embraces sadness on her new song “Not Today.” “Someday I won’t be afraid of my head/ Someday I will not be chained to my bed,” the pop singer croons over breezy, buzzing synths. “Someday I’ll forget the day he left/ But surely not today.” The arrangement is deceptively detailed, weaving in palm-muted guitar riffs, sampled drum loops, acoustic strums and a bridge section that her lyric video describes as a “funky (but still sad) breakdown.”

“Not Today” appears on Cara’s upcoming second LP, The Pains of Growing, out November 30th. The album also includes previous singles “Trust My Lonely” and “Growing Pains”; she paired both tracks with videos starring the singer in her now-signature oversized suit.

Cara recently spoke to Rolling Stone about challenging herself to write most of the record’s intimate material.

“It’s very difficult to sit in a room with someone else, or with other people, and have to tell them about that and be that person with them so that they can write something with you,” she said. “I just thought, there’s no better person to write this than me. It was so personal to me. It was a really sacred thing; I didn’t want anyone to know exactly what I was going through. When you have full control, you can give away as much as you want to give away, and be as honest as you want and you know what it means and no one understands you better than you.”