Lea Michele details 'personal' new album 'Places'

Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Lea Michele says her new album, Places, is a very "personal" project.

The 30-year-old actress and singer discussed in an interview with Billboard her new album and how the record will differ from her debut studio album, Louder.

"[The process was] so much more personal than the last one," Michele told the publication. "I didn't sing with anyone other than [rep Amanda Berman-Hill and songwriter Alexandra Tamposi], which created a consistency."

"[The song 'Hey You' is] extremely special and personal," she 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," the star shared.

The Glee alum released Louder in February 2014 following boyfriend Cory Monteith's death in July 2013. The album received mixed reviews from critics, which Michele partially attributed to a lack of "consistency."

"It was a lot. I was singing 10 songs a week for Glee in the studio," she explained. "When it came time for me to make my own album, I think it was a little clouded for me in terms of wanting to figure out what my own sound was."

"It was also clouded by a big tragedy that had happened to me, in the midst of making that album. And you hear that in that album -- you hear the darkness of what was going on in my life. I don't think there is a consistency to the record that I was hoping for, but that's life," the actress said.

Michele previously said in the November 2015 issue of Marie Claire that "the problem" with Louder was that she didn't have much control in the studio. She paid tribute to Monteith this week by sharing a never-before-seen throwback photo.