The new disc, recorded at Harmony Studios in West Hollywood, follows her 2014 debut recording, Louder, also from Sony Music Entertainment/Columbia Records.
Michele contacted her former Spring Awakening co-star, Jonathan Groff, when looking for a title for her second solo outing. The Scream Queens star told Billboard, “I was like, ‘What’s something from our time in New York—a word, or a phrase, or something that is from theater, or from us?’ And he said, ‘What about Places?’ When you’re on Broadway, you get your 30-minute call, then your 15-minute call. You hear ‘Places everyone!’ And that means it’s show time.”
Song titles include “Love Is Alive,” “Run to You,” “Getaway Car,” “Hey You,” and more.
About her new recording, Michele added, “We have two songs that veer a little bit more in the pop direction, but for the most part, I sat back and listened to all of the songs that I grew up listening to, and most of them were Celine Dion, four-minute-long vocal Olympics…This is a vocal album, and there are definitely love songs in there, but there’s also a sense of freedom. I went back and listened to all of the divas that I loved, and tried to find how that music resonates for me, in 2017.”
The singing actor also hopes to play an extended tour to support Places, telling Billboard, “I’m a live singer, I come from Broadway, that’s what I do!”
