Sara Bareilles New Album 'The Blessed Unrest' Debuts at No. 2 Behind Jay (VIDEO)

With her first studio release since 2010, singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles has taken the No. 2 spot on the Billboard charts with her new album, "The Blessed Unrest."

The record sold 68,000 copies, only falling behind Jay Z's "Magna Carta... Holy Grail,'" which claimed the number one spot for the second week in a row with 129,000 copies sold.

Bareilles, who first gained fame in 2007 with her mega-hit "Love Song," admits that the new album was inspired by a rough period of change in her life. "I've always been very autobiographical in the way that I write," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "But that can be dressed up a million different ways."

"Letting go of your past to embrace your future was definitely a theme that I felt in this body of work, for sure," she said of the new album. "I'm 33, and I think something that happens in your 30s -- you start looking at your life in a timeline -- that maybe you weren't conscious or aware enough to do at a younger age. I hate to say that anything morbid sneaks in, but there is an awareness at this age that I don't remember feeling in my 20s."

Bareilles, who also tasted success with her 2010 single "King of Anything," said that despite the proven track record of her sweet pop hits, she wanted to try something different for her third studio release.

"Honestly, this sort of eclectic, wide range of variation in production style has always been my favorite kind of album," she said of "The Blessed Unrest," which features distinctly different tunes. "I think this is the first time I really got the chance to make that kind of record myself, where I wasn't looking at the production style and saying 'Oh, this doesn't fit' or 'There's not room enough' or 'Maybe I should make this song sound more like this song, so it all makes sense to the listener.' Really, I wanted each song to breathe and get to be the kind of expression it really wanted to be... As I go, I'm enjoying being slightly unpredictable. Sometimes you swing and you miss, but I don't want to be the kind of artist who's afraid to take the risk."

Her current single "Brave" peaked at No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100.