It took quite a while to get here, but the debut album from 19-year-old British Columbia singer Lauren Spencer Smith has finally arrived about a year and a half after her heartbroken single “Fingers Crossed” exploded across TikTok, drawing comparisons to the rise of Olivia Rodrigo. With seven singles already released, many fans likely knew what to expect from Mirror, as Spencer Smith’s powerful vocals and lyrical specificity continue to elevate more songs than not. The album is described as “a story filled with autobiographical ups and downs,” finding Spencer Smith mining a lot of detail out of personal stories of heartbreak, as well as finding a new and exciting love on the other side.

Although most of the project is coloured with breakup ballads and musically familiar territory, Spencer Smith is the kind of vocalist that’s good enough that it rarely matters, selling the emotion with her slightly raspy and soulful cadence. With some great lyrical twists throughout, she leans into an overarching narrative about how all of the pain was necessary to lead to the kind of happy ending that she wishes she was able to see while she was crying about it all. The closing track’s sentiment about finding something so great that she would go through all the pain again is extremely powerful – not to mention having earned enough money from writing about it to get her mom a house. With quite a lot of road left to travel, her opportunities should only continue to expand.