Lauren Minear Confronts the Messiness of Being Human on Her Stunning Third Album 'BOXING DAY'
- Andy Roberts
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
With Grammy consideration looming for her breakout song “Lightweight” and a recent invitation to join the Recording Academy’s 2025 New Member Class, Nashville-born, New York–based singer-songwriter Lauren Minear returns with BOXING DAY, her most candid, courageous, and emotionally intricate body of work to date.
Minear has never followed a straight line through music. A therapist, mother, and storyteller with a finely honed instinct for emotional nuance, she writes songs that unearth the quiet truths at the center of relationships, womanhood, and self-understanding. BOXING DAY continues this work with a sharper edge, a deeper honesty, and lyrics that cut like carefully wielded glass.
From the first track, it’s clear that Minear isn’t interested in glossing over discomfort. The album grapples openly with anger, codependency, tenderness, and conflict—the complicated terrain shared only by those closest to us. Lead singles “Lightweight” and “Bullshit” introduced two sides of Minear’s artistry: the crystalline vocalist and the razor-witted truth-teller. BOXING DAY blends them effortlessly.
The emotional centerpiece of the record is “Bruise,” a devastatingly vulnerable meditation on loving someone who’s hurt you. Minear describes it as one of the hardest songs she’s ever written: “It’s a retrospective on the times in my life when I confused codependency for empathy… It’s one of the most vulnerable songs on the album, and one of my favorites for that reason.”
Its stripped-back arrangement feels almost fragile, shaped during a freezing writing session in a Woodstock garage, conditions that, perhaps fittingly, mirror the song’s delicate emotional footing.
Minear’s storytelling is grounded in lived experience, but elevated by a voice that recalls Natalie Merchant, Dido, and Maggie Rogers, with lyrical sensibilities reminiscent of Joni Mitchell and Sarah McLachlan. Her ability to turn internal conflict into catharsis remains one of her greatest strengths, and on BOXING DAY, she leans into that gift with remarkable clarity.
The album also stands as a testament to a lifelong relationship with music. From her early mentorship by Nashville’s top songwriters to time spent in the studio during Steve Earle’s Jerusalem sessions, Minear’s artistic roots run deep. Yet it wasn’t until the pandemic—walking through the woods with her newborn, mourning the loss of her creative self—that she found her way back. This return birthed Invisible Woman (2021) and later Chasing Daylight, which earned critical acclaim for its intimate emotional landscapes.
Since then, Minear has amassed over a million streams, international radio support, and recognition from major songwriting competitions. She has shared stages with Pete Yorn and Cassandra Lewis and even earned the attention of Ben Folds, who selected her for his exclusive 2024 songwriting retreat.
In BOXING DAY, Lauren Minear doesn’t just tell her story, she gives listeners permission to face their own.