Toronto artist, producer, and music therapist SH3 has released her most intimate and transcendent project yet: The Blue Album — a deeply personal body of work born in the aftermath of losing her partner. Available now across all major streaming platforms, the album serves not only as a tribute but as a roadmap for healing, crafted by an artist who has spent her life helping others navigate grief.
Created in the months following her partner’s passing, The Blue Album is rooted in J. William Worden’s therapeutic framework, “The Tasks of Mourning.” Each track mirrors a different task, guiding listeners through acceptance, pain, adjustment, and connection. Rather than focusing on the well-known “5 Stages of Grief,” SH3 embraces this more active, compassionate model — turning her private sorrow into a communal act of healing.
The album opens with “Love Again,” where SH3 immediately sets the emotional tone with the lyric, “I’ve lost a treasure that’s now underground.” The song represents Task 1: accepting the reality of the loss. From here, the project moves through spectral folk textures, delicate synth work, and choral arrangements inspired by the artist’s earliest musical roots.
One of the standout pieces, “When You’re Gone,” was written just days after her partner’s birthday — a moment of profound stillness that became a turning point in her grieving process. “I realized I was using music therapy on myself,” SH3 shares. “I was processing my grief one lyric at a time.”
“Peace of Me” embodies the fragile process of reconstructing life without the person you love, using airy synths and subtle distortions to evoke what the artist calls “spiritual interference.” Later, “Love Doesn’t Die” — penned in a single, cathartic session following therapy — reveals a critical realization: that love endures even when someone is gone. “Maybe it’s not about saying goodbye… it’s the love that continues,” she sings.
The emotional arc reaches its resolution with “Until We Meet Again,” a hopeful song written in an unconventional 7/4 time signature. Sparse yet powerful, its minimalist synths drift like brushstrokes of blue. SH3 calls it “a song of gratitude — for love that transcends worlds.”
The project closes with a moving a cappella prayer, “Eternal Rest Grant Unto Them, O Lord/Amen,” returning the album to the sacred, choral soundscape of SH3’s musical beginnings.
The Blue Album defies genre, moving fluidly between R&B, folk, lofi, and spiritual choral elements. What binds it together is its emotional honesty — and the quiet strength of a woman using her art to survive heartbreak.
As a seasoned music therapist and grief counsellor, SH3 has spent years helping others find meaning through loss. With this project, she extends that same compassion outward. “I wanted to create something that could hold space for people in their own grief,” she explains. “This album was born from heartbreak, but it’s also about faith, memory, and the love that keeps us alive.”
A deluxe edition, released on a date tied to the couple’s shared meaningful numbers — 11 and 23 — adds even deeper layers of intimacy. It includes the original demo of “When You’re Gone” and a new opening track titled “The Loss,” completing the album’s emotional circle.
Ultimately, The Blue Album is far more than a record. It is a testament to music’s power to heal, a love story that refuses to end, and a gentle reminder that even in the darkest chapters, art can illuminate the way forward.
Track Listing
- Love Again – Task 1: Accepting the reality of the loss
- When You’re Gone – Task 2: Processing the pain of the loss
- Peace of Me – Task 3: Adjusting to a new world without your person
- Love Doesn’t Die – Task 4: Maintaining an enduring connection
- Until We Meet Again – Task 4: Maintaining an enduring connection
- Eternal Rest Grant Unto Them O Lord
- Amen