Grace Potter’s second solo LP, Daylight arrives after a turbulent, life-altering four year hiatus from music that had the acclaimed singer-songwriter contemplating whether she would ever record another album. Cathartic and emotionally raw, Daylight is the result of that arduous journey, the most emotionally revealing, musically daring work of her career. Produced by her husband, Eric Valentine, it took shape in the Topanga Canyon home they’d recently settled into. Unsigned and entirely free of any pressure to appease, Potter slowly carved out ideas and the two began laying down tracks. Moving to Valentine’s Hollywood studio, Barefoot Recording, the songs came to life with the help of longtime Potter collaborators including guitarist, Benny Yurco, and drummer Matt Musty, friends Benmont Tench and Larry Goldings on keys and supreme vocalists, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of the indie band Lucius.

“I’ve always aimed to write songs from a universal perspective; so that anyone who heard my music could relate, but that actually made it harder for me to take ownership of my own perspective. These songs were written so I could process – and be accountable for – my own life experience,” Potter says. “I had just pulled the ripcord on my whole life. It was an incredibly jarring, private experience. When the dust settled a bit, the last thing I wanted to do was tell the whole world about it through song. It was a very gradual process of re-framing music and its purpose in my life. So, when I finally started writing songs again – it had to be for myself and myself alone.”

On the powerful album-opener and first single, “Love Is Love,” Potter fully surrenders as her voice shifts from fragile to soaring. Throughout, Potter imbues her songs with equal parts aching vulnerability and unapologetic self-possession. In many ways, the stark piano balled, “Release,” is the album’s centerpiece. Sorrowful but redemptive, its resolution lies in a lyric by co-writer, Mike Busbee, (‘I hope that someday/The sun will shine again/And you’ll release me too’). While much of the new album mirrors the emotional chaos of her recent past,Daylight also channels a soulful wonder on songs like “Every Heartbeat,” an acoustic-guitar-laced serenade for Valentine and their infant son, Sagan. And on “Desire,” Daylight drifts into an impulsively playful mood, serving up a sweet celebration of unabashed lust.

Having endured a painful divorce and the breakup of her band – as well as far more joyful events like a new marriage and the birth of her first child – Grace Potter reached for Daylight and delivered a commanding statement of power and purpose.