If you'd already heard the titles of the two new songs appearing on Sarah McLachlan's forthcoming greatest hits compilation -- "Don't Give Up On us" and "U Want Me 2" -- you might have guessed that something’s amiss for the Vancouver-based songstress.

"I'm separating from my husband, so these are the songs about that," McLachlan revealed to Billboard.com. The musician married Ashwin Sood, her drummer, in 1997. They have two daughters together, aged six and 14 months. Sood currently works as a talent scout for LiveNation and Nettwerk Music Group.

Rumours of a break-up first surfaced this spring, but with her greatest hits package, Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan, due in stores Oct. 7 and a spate of promotional TV appearances scheduled in the weeks ahead, McLachlan has only now gone on record about the split.

"I wasn't planning on saying anything," McLachlan told Billboard.com, "but it's gonna come out at some point. I haven't said anything about it because I've been terrified to, but I figure ... there's no good time to say it, so I just said it."

McLachlan would not elaborate on the reasons for the separation, only saying it's been "pretty gross." She's more forthcoming, it seems, in her music.

"U Want Me 2" -- her first single since 2006 -- is described by the songwriter as being "about that really uncertain, confusing place at the end of a relationship when there's no communication or closure, everything's still up in the air and there's a lot of anger and sadness. It's sort of that working through 'How do we move forward ... with some dignity and grace?’"

As for "Don't Give Up on Us," she tells Billboard.com: "[It's] pretty self-explanatory, basically just a plea to give it another chance and keep trying."

© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.