There is a version of Uprooted that could have been a straightforward break-up record, or a straightforward grief record, or a straightforward record about friendship. Sara Leanne’s debut EP is, somehow, all three at once, and the trick of it is that none of the four tracks feel like they’re competing for space.
Opener and lead single ‘Song From Your Daughter’ sets a high emotional bar early. Written in the aftermath of her father’s death, the song was reportedly recorded in fragments before Sara managed a single unbroken take that made the final mix, a detail that explains its unusual sense of composure under weight. ‘Take Me As I Am’ follows a more familiar shape, a stripped piano-and-vocal ballad indebted to 1970s songwriting, though its lyric, written out of heartbreak and the longing for something less damaging, gives it an edge that keeps it from ever feeling like pastiche.
The record’s midpoint shift is where Uprooted earns its title. ‘Loved Into Something New’ trades the piano focus for blues-rock warmth, Andrew Jones switching to Hammond and Wurlitzer, and the tone lifts accordingly, a song of gratitude rather than sorrow. Closer ‘Breathe’ pulls back again into folk-adjacent atmosphere, Alex Hillman’s guitar giving the arrangement room to breathe in the way the title suggests.
Production throughout, handled by Andrew Jones with engineering from Matt Butler at Yellow Shark Studios, resists the temptation to smooth over the rougher emotional edges of the writing. That restraint is the EP’s real achievement. Sara Leanne, a classically trained pianist who has also performed the role of Christine McVie with Rumours of Fleetwood Mac, clearly has the technical range to over-produce a record like this. She chooses not to.
Uprooted released 13th August 2026, and stands as a confident, unfussy debut from an artist for whom honesty is clearly the whole point.
