The Pains of Growing

“	I wanted to make the album title feel like it’s a story. Like a storybook. And I thought calling it The Pains of Growing sounds like you’re about to read a book about someone or about something. It’s just a full cohesive thing. And I’ve always really been drawn to albums that just feel like one big body of work and one big story. It would just be more impactful and sound more like a story, honestly.	”
– Alessia talking about The Pains Of Growing

The Pains Of GrowingStudio album by Alessia Cara
General information
Release Date	November 30, 2018
Recorded	2017 - 2018
Studio	4220 (Los Angeles) Paramount Recording (Los Angeles) Revolution Recording (Toronto)
Genre	Pop · R&B
Length	45:44 (Standard Edition) 67:20 (Japanese Edition)
Label	Def Jam
Producer(s)	Pop & Oak, Ricky Reed, Trevor Brown, Zaire Koalo, ClickNPress, Jon Levine, No I.D., Steve Wyreman, Rick Nowels, Dean Reid, Nate Mercureau
Studio albums chronology
Previous	Know-It-All
Current	The Pains Of Growing
Next	In The Meantime
Singles
1. "Growing Pains" Released: June 15, 2018 2. "Trust My Lonely" Released: October 5, 2018 3. "Out of Love" Released: January 29, 2019

The Pains of Growing is Alessia Cara's sophomore studio album. It was released on November 30, 2018 through Def Jam Recordings. Its songs were mostly written by Cara herself, with co-writing from producers Pop & Oak. Musically. The Pains of Growing is a "coming of age" record, inspired by three years of the singer's life that led up to its release. Critics named Cara and her sound as "the big-sister of pop", and praised Cara's songwriting ability. The album would eventually win a Juno Award for Album of the Year at the The Juno Awards, and would also receive accolades on other categories that same year.

The album debuted at 71 on the Billboard 200 and at number 21 in Canada. The Pains of Growing generated three singles. "Growing Pains", released as the album's lead single on June 15, 2018, charted at number 65 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 36 in Canada. "Trust My Lonely" and "Out of Love" were respectively released as its second and third singles. Cara promoted the album through a series of public appearances and televised live performances, and later, on May 11, 2019, began embarking on 'The Pains of Growing Tour', in Ottawa, Ontario. In addition to her own tour, Cara opened for Shawn Mendes' tour during his American, Canadian & some European dates.

Background and release

According to Cara, The Pains of Growing explores "the nuance and mentality of what it's like to age out of your teen years", as she was 21 during the writing and recording of it. She added that the album is "a little bit more mature, and a little bit more cohesive. It just feels more like a full album. And then conceptually, I know I already touched on it before, but just life experiences and just a lot more transparency". Steven J. Horowitz of Billboard called the album a "more mature, radio-ready body of work". From December 2018 to April 2021, Cara uploaded videos to her YouTube channel as a part of a series called "The Making Of: The Pains of Growing", in the videos she puts together a collection of behind the scenes for her songs, giving fans a look at how the songs came together in short summaries. She has created videos for nine songs from her album: “Comfortable” “Out of Love” “All We Know", "I Don't Want To", "Trust My Lonely", "Wherever I Live", "7 Days", "Not Today" and "Growing Pains".

Singles

• "Growing Pains" was released on June 15, 2018 as her first single, and serviced to hot adult contemporary radio on June 25, 2018. The song peaked at number 36 in Canada, number 65 in the United States, and number 87 in Australia.

• "Trust My Lonely" was released on October 5, 2018 and became her second single.

• "Out of Love" was released to US contemporary hit radio on January 29, 2019, as the album's third single.

Growing Pains

Trust My Lonely

Out of Love

Promotional singles

• "A Little More" was released on July 11, 2018 on Alessia's birthday.
• "Not Today" was released on November 13.

A Little More

Not Today

Live Performances

Cara first performed "Growing Pains" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 18, 2018. The singer played most of The Pains of Growing for a media gathering at a Los Angeles studio in June 2018. On July 11, Cara performed "Growing Pains" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. "Growing Pains" was also performed at the 2018 iHeartRadio MMVAs. "Trust My Lonely" has been performed live at the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards and "Out of Love" was performed at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Cara shared the cover art and track listing on Twitter on October 26.

Commercial performance

In Canada, The Pains of Growing debuted at number 21 In the United States the album debuted at number 71 on the Billboard 200. Elsewhere, it charted at number 165 on the Belgium Ultratop Flanders chart, number 76 in Australia and number 78 on the Dutch Albums Chart.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	72/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Exclaim!	8/10
The Guardian
The Line of Best Fit	7/10
NME
The Observer
Rolling Stone

Upon its release, The Pains of Growing received generally favorable reviews from music critics. On the review aggregator site Metacritic, the album holds a score of 72/100, based on 13 reviews. Rob Sheffield, writing for Rolling Stone, awarded the album 4 out of 5 stars, commending Cara's songwriting and vocals and noting her growth from her previous record; Sheffield ends his review by commenting that "all over The Pains of Growing, she’s got a style that’s all her own." NME likewise gave the album 4 stars out of five and commended "The Girl Next Door" as "the most revealing song" on the album, calling the album "impressive and winningly authentic."

Some critics were more mixed in their assessments of the album. Ben Beaumont-Thomas, writing for The Guardian, criticized "some production that sounds suspiciously like focus-grouping" and also deemed the lyrics a "mixed bag", but commended "7 Days" and "A Little More" as "much more affecting." He gave the album 3 stars out of 5. Pitchfork critic Jayson Greene scored the album 6.8 out of 10; he opined that "a few songs here feel like homework assignments done en route to arrive at a better song." However, he also wrote that, unlike its predecessor, the album "has the tinge of a project made with love and devotion" and singled out "Not Today", "Trust My Lonely", "Nintendo Game", "Wherever I Live", and "Girl Next Door" as highlights. In the review for AllMusic, Andy Kellman compared the album to Cara's previous release, stating that "The Pains of Growing is consequently more fragmented and less consistent than Know-It-All, but Cara makes the best of it, generally writing in a slightly wiser and sharper manner from the same introverted homebody perspective."

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Growing Pains"	Alessia Cara, Andrew "Pop" Wansel, Warren "Oak" Felder	Pop & Oak	3:13
2.	"Not Today"	Alessia Cara	Jon Levine	2:36
3.	"I Don't Want To"	Alessia Cara	Alessia Cara	2:42
4.	"7 Days"	Alessia Cara, Andrew "Pop" Wansel, Warren "Oak" Felder	Pop & Oak	3:28
5.	"Trust My Lonely"	Alessia Cara, Andrew "Pop" Wansel, Warren "Oak" Felder	Pop & Oak	3:19
6.	"Wherever I Live"	Alessia Cara	Ricky Reed	3:05
7.	"All We Know"	Alessia Cara, Andrew "Pop" Wansel, Warren "Oak" Felder, Trevor Brown, William Simmons	Pop & Oak, Trevorious, Zaire Koalo	3:23
8.	"A Little More"	Alessia Cara	Alessia Cara	2:26
9.	"Comfortable"	Alessia Cara, Ernest Wilson, Steve Wyreman, Nathaniel Mercureau	No I.D., Steve Wyreman	4:17
10.	"Nintendo Game"	Alessia Cara, Kaleb Rollins, Marc Soto	ClickNPress	2:41
11.	"Out of Love"	Alessia Cara, Richard Nowels Jr.	Rick Nowels, Dean Reid	3:47
12.	"Girl Next Door"	Alessia Cara, Kaleb Rollins, Marc Soto	ClickNPress	3:22
13.	"My Kind"	Alessia Cara, Nathaniel Mercureau	Ricky Reed, Nathaniel Mercureau	3:01
14.	"Easier Said"	Alessia Cara, Andrew "Pop" Wansel, Warren "Oak" Felder, Trevor Brown, William Simmons	Pop & Oak, Trevorious, Zaire Koalo	3:25
15.	"Growing Pains" (Reprise)	Alessia Cara	Alessia Cara	0:59
Total length:				45:44

Target exclusive bonus tracks & Japanese bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
16.	"Growing Pains" (Acoustic)	3:14
17.	"Growing Pains" (BRAVVO Remix)	3:43
18.	"Growing Pains" (Locals Only Sound Remix) (featuring Curtis Smith)	3:14
19.	"Trust My Lonely" (Frank Walker Remix)	3:06
20.	"Trust My Lonely" (Rain or Shine Remix)	4:35

Japanese bonus tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
21.	"Stay" (with Zedd)	Alessia Cara, Zedd, Jonnali Parmenius, Anders Frøen, Sarah Aarons, Linus Wiklund	Zedd, Linus Wiklund	3:30
Total length:				67:20

Gallery

"Don't you know you're no good for me?" To view the The Pains of Growing gallery, click here.