Lauren Spencer Smith joins Shelf

Lauren Spencer Smith isn’t afraid to tell us exactly how she feels

The platinum-selling singer-songwriter, best known for emotionally raw ballads, returns in this chapter of her career with sharper edges and a broader palette. If Mirror introduced us to the aching softness of her inner world, her sophomore album, THE ART OF BEING A MESS, shows us what happens when that world grows teeth. “Sad girl” isn’t a brand here—it’s a foundation, one she builds on with moments of anger, clarity, and a wicked sense of humor. Lauren opens the album with the line, “what a beautiful day to feel shitty.” What follows is a journey through grief, rage, nostalgia, and hard-won joy. Talking to Lauren, what strikes you isn’t just the emotion in her music—it’s how grounded she is in the people who hold her through it: her mom, her friends, her boyfriend, and the tiny rituals that tether her to happiness. Lauren is exactly what her songs promise: real, resonant, and beautifully unfiltered.

THE ART OF BEING A MESS is currently available to stream on all streaming platforms.

ShelfMAG: How does this chapter of your career musically feel compared to Mirror? What parts of you feel the same or different?

@laurenspencersmith: I feel like the parts of me that are the same are a lot of the sad music and just the sad girl in me. I don't think the way that I feel emotions deeply will ever go away, but I feel like this album definitely feels elevated when it comes to production and the overall concept. I kind of tapped into my angry side a lot. So that was very different for me compared to the first album because it was pretty much all sad music.

ShelfMAG: You can definitely hear it. The opening line of the whole project, “what a beautiful day to feel shitty,” definitely cut deep for me because I found it extremely relatable. When you're experiencing days like that, what do you find yourself streaming, watching, reading, etc. to either match or bring you out of that, like, shitty mindset?

@laurenspencersmith: That's a great question. I feel like I have really great friends and people around me. My mom kind of comes everywhere with us, and I feel like that's really the key to being happy. Having support around you for when you are sad, I feel is the most vital thing for your mental health and just your overall wellbeing.

ShelfMAG: Looking back, who were some of the artists that made you believe that this kind of a life was possible? And today, who do you find yourself gravitating towards for inspiration?

@laurenspencersmith: Oh, my favorite artist in the entire world is Adele. A lot of my inspo kind of came from 21. I also really love Olivia Rodrigo, the Sour album, specifically. That really inspired a lot of my songwriting, even for my last album. But I think I carry a lot of that inspiration into just my music in general.

ShelfMAG: I feel like you can definitely hear that. Especially “IF KARMA DOESN’T GET YOU (I WILL).” That song feels very Olivia Rodrigo coded, but the Lauren Spencer Smith version.

This next question is a bit heavier, but I did want to ask as someone who has also experienced loss and grief. “Looking Up” is gaining traction online really fast, and I think it's because a lot of people can relate to the messaging in it. Did the process of writing that song help you understand your own grief differently? And how do you feel like sharing it online has affected your own healing process"?

@laurenspencersmith: Honestly, it's my favorite song on the entire album, really. So I'm very happy that it's resonating with people, because it resonates with me so much, obviously. But it was very hard to write. I'm so grateful to the songwriters that I was with because they created such a safe space and they had been through the same thing that I had been through. I felt so comforted.

I think in general, everything I write I leave the studio and cry to it immediately or feel whatever the song is about. And for that one, it was that times a thousand. Knowing that I have a comfort song to be able to listen to whenever—that is directly about my life and that specific situation that I went through—has been very, very healing. Seeing that other people have gone through the same thing has been making me even more sad, actually, but also healing a part of me at the same time to know that [grief] is a universal thing that everyone goes through at some point in their life. Obviously some sooner than others, but yeah, it's been really crazy.

ShelfMAG: That makes sense. I mean, I can only speak for myself, but I listening to it felt like three minutes of you perfectly articulating what it genuinely feels like to lose someone you love. It’s healing and very powerful.

The last few questions I have are lighthearted. If you could only watch one show for the rest of your life, what would it be?

@laurenspencersmith: Oh, Grey's Anatomy.

ShelfMAG: Who's your favorite character? I have to ask.

@laurenspencersmith: Either Miranda Bailey or maybe Cristina. I obviously love Meredith, but I'm obsessed with Miranda Bailey.

ShelfMAG: Love that. I'm watching it right now for the first time!

@laurenspencersmith: Oh, my God. I've watched it so many times. I had to stop watching it because I think it actually is bad for my mental health. Like someone's always dying and I have this fear that everyone's going to die. And then my boyfriend is like, “I think it's from Grey's Anatomy”.

ShelfMAG: My sister says the same thing to me. What's the first song that made you feel like the main character while riding in the back seat of your parents’ car? It's so specific, but I feel like everyone’s had the experience?

@laurenspencersmith: Honestly, I feel like “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia was a really big song from my childhood. Super random, but that was the song that my parents had on this iPod (which sounds like so ancient to say now). But they had an iPod, and that was one of the only three songs they had on it. So we’d bump that, and then they also had it on CD.

ShelfMAG: Would that be a go-to karaoke song for you?

@laurenspencersmith: Yeah, for sure.

ShelfMAG: Respect. Final question. What's the item on your shelf that is most likely to stay there forever?

@laurenspencersmith: This sounds like really particular, but I've been dating my boyfriend for three and a half years, and when he asked me to be his girlfriend, he bought us stars in the sky with a picture of the stars with the date on it. And the stars circulate around each other. He didn't give it to me until we had been dating for a year. That lives on our shelf in our living room next to a picture of us, and I feel like that will always live there.

ShelfMAG:That's really sweet. You should take a picture of it and put it on your digital shelf.

Curious about what else Lauren is into? Get real-time updates at shelf.im/laurenspencersmith