How often do we get to follow an artist’s journey even before their debut album drops? It is such a special feeling to not only be an important part of someone’s career early on, but to be able to experience the anticipation and excitement from the second they tease their debut album and announce its release, to the moment the clock hits midnight and the music is finally ours. If you are a Lauren Spencer Smith fan, the time has come. Her debut album ‘Mirror’ was released just yesterday and I wanted to take the time to talk about the importance of representation and emotional transparency through artistry and how the writer behind it gives it all its meaning.
This body of work truly is an emotional masterpiece and some of the best and most touching music I have ever heard. Lauren is an artist who writes about real stories that become soundtracks to other people’s trauma. So many young people struggle with their mental health, childhood trauma or best friend breakups even before their first relationship. Finding your own truth between the lines of an artist’s music can be extremely therapeutic and life changing in more ways than one. Listening to the different tracks on Mirror, you will relate instantly, even if you have never been in love or heartbroken before because this album has something for everyone. To Lauren, it matters to not just write honest music, but to cover topics that aren’t represented enough or not at all.
While we have heard and loved the already released tracks on Mirror, thinking it couldn’t get more intense and heartbreaking, well, we were wrong. The new songs did not come unarmed, the lyrics get even deeper, the emotions behind Lauren’s massive vocals hit so much harder and we will all need time off to recover. Literally. This album is more than just music we can relate to, it’s a collection of real emotions reflecting on different chapters in not just Lauren’s life, but yours too if you can see yourself in it. Music is so universal while being extremely personal at the same time.
Listening through Mirror, you experience all kinds of stages emotionally. The album starts with Never Been In Love which describes how – even when you have been in past relationships – your heart has not found its matching beat yet. We all want love, we wanna find our ride or die who is gonna be by our side until the end. And you won’t know what real love is, until the day your heart feels complete and two beats become one. But have you ever thought that Love Is An Overstatement?
We have all been in situations where the love scale is unbalanced and we tend to get confused by mixed signals and a love language that is hard to translate into what is true and what is just an overstatement. Love is a two way street and while we all have our own expectations of what it should look like, the reality might be twisted. This song is catchy, honest and one of my favorites on the album so far.
Following the first two tracks are Fingers Crossed – the one that really jump started Lauren’s career and introduced a lot of us to her and her music – the pop girls collab Fantasy feat. GAYLE and Em Beihold and – of course – Narcissist. If you haven’t heard those yet, where have you been? They are absolute classics and will get the crowds screaming every lyric on tour.
One of the most honest and emotionally hurtful songs on the album and a clear fan favorite is Bigger Person. This song is for us people pleasers, for anyone who grew up in a chaotic or even mentally abusive household and had to be the bigger person to keep it “working”. Personally, I think everyone can relate to this one in their own way. How many times have you given in to avoid another confrontation or because you wanted to keep people in your life? At the end of the day it is a lose-lose situation, because you either lose someone you love or you lose yourself. It is up to you to decide which loss is worth taking. Personally, this song has hit home in more ways than one and it will be playing on repeat from this day forward.
Now let’s talk about Aftermath. These lyrics are very much relatable and hold so much truth. The end of any relation- or situationship is not the last stage of it. What about the outro that talks about how we have to pick up all the broken pieces, unlearn who we have become and how we have to take care of the stranger staring at us in the mirror? We tend to ignore all the red flags, we downplay someone’s bad behavior and make ourselves believe they can change while they end up pulling us down to their toxic perception of reality. Trying to get back up to find your own self again is the aftermath no one really talks about.
The next song on the album is 28 and extremely personal to Lauren. But even though it was very difficult to put out, she managed to turn an uncomfortable and weird situation into an anthem for anyone who has gone through the same or something similar. By being brave enough to share her story, Lauren made millions of people feel understood and less alone. You are allowed to speak up, to disapprove and be upset when a situation calls for exactly that. And even if you can’t relate to the song as a whole, there are bits and pieces we can all find our own truths in and you definitely feel every bit of emotion between the lines.
Getting into Best Friend Breakup, we firstly have to thank Lauren for talking about the probably worst breakup of all, because no one really has before. And I think we’ve all been there, haven’t we? This track was released prior to the album and I remember screaming the lyrics from the top of my lungs in my car and completely losing my voice afterwards. If you have heard the song, you get it. And if there aren’t tears rolling down your face getting towards the end of the album, believe me, it’s gonna happen.
Listening to Too Hurt To Fall In Love is like reading a page out of your own diary. We have all been hurt, betrayed and mistreated by people we loved. With that, we start to lose trust in people, we doubt their good intentions and struggle to believe in real love, good people and our own happy ending. This song is a beautiful soundtrack to what goes through our minds in those moments and reflects those feelings perfectly. The way Lauren managed to describe it so superbly just shows what an incredible and talented songwriter she is.
Even though Lauren’s album talks a lot about heartbreak in different shapes and forms, that is not all there is. The first time I pressed play on Hey, I started tearing up. Hearing Lauren sing about the early stages of her current happy relationship really warmed my heart. Even though everyone brings their own burdens into a relationship, you want to find someone who makes you better and wants you to grow together. You can unlearn the bad when you meet someone who can turn ashes into flowers and make your heart bloom again.
Speaking of, we can’t forget about Flowers. If you have ever seen Lauren perform this song, you know how loud it gets when everyone starts yelling their feelings out. As the follow up to Fingers Crossed, it is a perfect segway into the heartbreak aftermath and is followed by the love story she was meant to tell. And what better way to talk about it, then put it all in a song right? That Part is not just an amazingly well written love song directed and dedicated to her boyfriend Matt, but it quickly became a viral wedding song that everyone absolutely loved. Sharing is caring and music has a unique way of connecting people and reaching hearts around the world.
That is also what the second last track Ily will achieve most definitely. The lightness and sweet melody aligns with the beautiful lyrics we can all find happiness and joy in. After all the emotionally heavy tracks, it was exactly what we needed. It proves again that Lauren knows what she’s doing and she made sure that her first album had a bit of everything in it.
Do It All Again is the last track on the album and the perfect ending to the story. No matter what we go through, how much pain we suffer, all the loss and difficult times happened for a reason. We lived, we learned and we eventually understood why everything had to happen the way it did. This song is my personal favorite on the album, because you can’t speak more truth than that, while blessing us with vocals that are just beyond words. And the iconic outro is such a full circle moment, periodt.
There truly isn’t a voice like Lauren’s and that is a fact. Especially the last track made me realize how we have no idea what an artist is going through behind closed doors, how many demons they have fought in their own heads and how – at the end of the day – they are only human just like you and me. Hearing the painful truth through your favorite artist’s music hurts your heart and hits even deeper when you can relate to their suffering yourself. But at the end of the day, it is pure therapy for all of us, isn’t it?
Mirror truly is a reflection of a lot of things, but mostly the brutal reality we are oftentimes too afraid to face. Lauren Spencer Smith is an artist who has turned her darkest chapters into a collection of exceptional music we are extremely grateful for. Not only has she written my favorite album to date, but Lauren truly has one of the most amazing young voices out there that will take her places far beyond her own or anyone else’s imagination. And if you know her, you know that she is such an angel with the kindest heart, funniest personality and purest soul.
This might just be her debut album, but this girl is – without a doubt – off to an outstanding and long lasting career. Mark my words. She truly has turned her tears to something that means more than her in a way that has not only given her the success and place in the industry she deserves, but has healed hearts and changed the lives of fans around the world. The reflection of her story has become the soundtrack to a lot of ours and it goes without saying that she is an absolute blessing to everyone who needed to feel heard to heal.
So I encourage you to go listen to Mirror right now, share it with all your friends, family and loved ones, and you can thank me later when it hits you right in your feels. If you haven’t jumped on the LSS train yet, what are you waiting for? And make sure you stop by at a show nearby on her upcoming worldwide tour or just hop on a plane if it’s further away, because you really don’t wanna miss out on the kind of therapy you didn’t know you needed.
ROARA Magazine 