Several songs in this album contain explicit content. 

Life can be a mess, and Lauren Spencer Smith knows it. 

Smith released her first album, “Mirror” in 2023, featuring hit songs such as “Flowers” and “Fingers Crossed.” Now, back with another collection of music, she is showing the world just how messy life can get.

The original “THE ART OF BEING A MESS” was released in June of last year, and the deluxe edition came out this February. The deluxe version now includes six more emotional ballads, bringing even more heartwarming and heart-wrenching depth.

In 18 songs, Smith demonstrates an astonishing array of emotions that can pull on anyone’s heartstrings. They are fit for every moment, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in life.

All of Smith’s music is focused on the nuanced, emotional experiences we go through as humans, but what makes “THE ART OF BEING A MESS (DELUXE)” my favorite of her two albums is the variety of sentiments that it covers. 

Themes of breaking up tend to occur frequently in modern day music. Songs about picking yourself back up after suffering and feeling misery are something that listeners connect to quite often.

Smith takes this pain and gives it a twist.

In songs such as “bridesmaid” and “somebody you’re supposed to love,” Smith shows that a loss of love doesn’t just come from romantic partners. In these, she depicts the way she views ‘breakups’ with close friends and family.

Instead of being mad and regretful after those endings, they represent the nuance and maturity of how to deal with these kinds of loss.

Throughout “bridesmaid” she creates a beautiful story of how sometimes, when you get to your happy ending, it doesn’t include the people you always thought were going to be there.

“I forgot all the reasons that we fought / I’m stuck with my regrets staring at your empty dress” is one of the lines that I resonate with the most. The way it expresses the remorse people feel after loss is something I found a lot of personal connection to.  

A lot of times, the fights we have seem to be so important. Yet this line shows that when we go through loss, we can find that, compared to that connection, the things that seemed so big and important never were.

Pain comes with many facets, a lot of the common ones being sadness — as seen before — and anger. One underappreciated theme that Smith includes in this album is healing.

The vast majority of breakup songs I hear are about the singer wanting the other person to know they are hurting, and for that person to feel the same pain — Smith doesn’t always take that path, though. 

Two of her songs, “Pray” and “someday…,” one directed at the other in the relationship and one pointed directly at herself, are about healing. Rather than focusing her time on increasing the cycle of pain and destruction, she instead puts her efforts into mending the wounds.

When I think of forgiveness and healing, “Pray” is the first song that comes to mind. It is without contempt or anger, instead being full of respect and kindness.

To me, this song includes an angle a lot of similar tracks don’t: forgiveness. 

With the line, “When you think of me, baby, don’t think twice / It’s all alright / Darling, I pray for ya, yeah / I pray for ya” she conveys that rather than wanting more hurt for the both of them, she would rather that they move on. 

That line is the heart of the entire song. 

Her second song of healing, “someday…” isn’t about anyone but herself. Women are under a lot of pressure about their appearances, and a lot of times, that can result in self-doubt and negativity.

So rather than accept those negative thoughts as her way of life, Smith aspires to instead “talk to myself / Like I talk to everyone else.”

“someday…” has made its way up to one of my favorite songs from this album because of this. Smith took something that continues to impact our world so much, our self-image, and created an inspiring piece of art from it. 

After having been a listener of both “Mirror” and “THE ART OF BEING A MESS (DELUXE)” I can confidently say her music is something I believe will resonate with a lot of people and is worth listening to.