Sarah McLachlan on Better Broken, First Album in 11 Years and as Empty Nester (Exclusive)

It took Sarah McLachlan a long time to make her 10th studio album Better Broken — approximately 11 years.

In fact, the title for the record — out Friday, Sept. 19 — stems from the oldest song, which was written 13 years ago.

“It never made it on my last record, and I forgot about it because we hadn’t quite finished it. I think we ran out of time,” the “Angel” musician, 57, tells PEOPLE.

As the record progressed, the concept of “Better Broken” kept surfacing for McLachlan.

“This idea that we as humans are messy and have to work through a lot of challenges in our lives, but to come out on the other side of that and still be whole is really powerful and life-affirming,” she says of the title.

Ultimately, the idea of a “reclamation of self” became a recurring theme on the 11-track LP.

Produced by Tony Berg and Will Maclellan, Better Broken notably features a duet between McLachlan and MUNA’s Katie Gavin, who released her Lilith Fair-esque solo album What a Relief last year.

McLachlan was looking for the right voice for what would become their duet “Reminds Me.”

“We wanted to turn the traditional duet on its nose and have another woman in there thinking about Lilith, thinking about the political and social climate,” she said.

McLachlan added, “I really, really loved her voice, and the juxtaposition of the two voices is really beautiful. That’s the thing that I search for as well — how are these two voices going to fit together and add value?”

McLachlan’s inspiration for the song came from somewhere unexpected — the series Yellowstone.

“I went down that rabbit hole during COVID and fell in love with that cowboy culture a little bit,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘I want to write a cowboy love song,’ and that’s where that song came from.”

For the “Fallen” musician, Better Broken has allowed her to lean into emotional chaos.

McLachlan, who shares daughters India Ann, 23, and Taja, 18, with ex-husband Ashwin Sood, recently became an empty nester. “Being an empty nester…anytime anybody mentioned it the last three months I would just start leaking,” she says.

Better Broken sees her grappling with the messiness of humanity, the life-affirming act of overcoming challenges and coming back to herself.

Better Broken is out now.