Fort Wayne's homegrown turned LA popstar Lauren Sanderson released her sophomore album, Spaces, on July 13th, 2017. It independently topped R&B iTunes charts on release day. Lauren recently signed with Epic Records in LA where she currently resides, but her two previous projects have been produced and released independently. Lauren isn't playing games, and she's only going up from here.
The album opens up with "Voices," a heavy and dark voice overshadowing Lauren’s as they sing about the voices in her head. Voices of hate and doubt bouncing around until the song slows down slightly, and she moves on. “And now this space here in my heart is opportunity,”
“Voices,” seamlessly transitions into “Big Shot / I Tried,” with the help of static that concludes the mood of the pilot track and moves into the similar, but different mood of “Big Shot.” It has the same simple club beat that sounds like a walk-on song for any other big shot. Lauren’s more confident, but humble. “Make some room for the big shot… I ain’t nothing but a big shot.” The song takes a turn much like the one in “Nights” by Frank Ocean, the mood completely switches into a new dimension. Lauren becomes more somber, drawn out like a low note. The music flows like summer water. It flows after the raw emotion of “I ain’t nothing but a big shot.” She’s been “Trying and fighting and lying to you, been lying for the truth.” This is one of my favorite songs off the album, it connects in such a subtle way you just might miss it.
“Conversations,” featuring DYSN continues in the same theme that “I Tried” ended with. Lauren’s moved on, she’s onto the next. But she used to love this girl that drained her. “I was just fine before you came to me… We’d have these conversations, and I won’t pick up the phone,” In the aftermath, Lauren learned to love herself. She’s not drained by this other being anymore, she’s her own person, what she always should have been.
“Time” pays homage to anyone who ever doubted Lauren, much like the song on her previous album, “I’ll Be Damned.” She does not have time for missing out on opportunities, dreams, and visions. This is a rare moment of bragging for her, she usually is humble and just continues working. She lets all that go, and lets the people know that she is independent, did everything through pure determination and hard work. The slower and more flowy beat differs from her previous project, “Center of Expression.”
Lauren is right at that sweet spot, where the self-made start to make it.
“Written in the Stars” has a slower, more instrumental feel to it than its predecessors. Listening to this feels like you’re laying on the coast with your friends, the sun setting just perfectly, enjoying the feeling of being there. Lauren’s fighting something unknown in this song, talking to herself to let it go, what is meant to be will be. It’s written in the stars. “Your heart so bold, so cold, so thrown, you fight right back / It doesn’t have to be so cold / & you don’t have to feel alone,”
In “Spaces,” Lauren talks to a younger self, the one that’s finding excuses for everything. Nearing the end of the album, she’s slowing down; digging deep through her memory and her passions. She’s going through the spaces in her mind. All beats were produced by Earl Saga, but this one takes the cake for me. It’s slow, flows perfectly with Lauren’s deep, more sullen tone of the song. Lauren talks to this younger, passionate girl that just keeps on dreaming. “Told her dreaming only goes so far / So go and chase them baby…” Dreaming isn’t what started Lauren’s success, action was. Continuous action and determination brought her to where she is now. She ends this lesson with a conclusion like no other, “I found myself wishin / Wishin for a better life, but I realized these were just spaces… We may never find our answer / But we always seem to try / To fill these spaces / Spaces that fill my mind.”
To wrap up her sophomore project, Lauren looked to the future with “Los Angeles,” a song with hope, dreams, and a beat. It’s an upbeat song with a more upbeat and fresh look on the future. She looks back when she was “sitting in my dad’s room, sitting in my bedroom / Talking bout the plans I would make,” She’s come so far since she started making music, it’s time to reflect on all that work. She’s now looking at it, saying, “What can I do now?” Lauren was living in Fort Wayne when she wrote, “Los Angeles is so close,” She’s almost there, almost at the top, and Lauren is not stopping until she gets there. Some may think Lauren got her way to LA through luck, through sheer chance, but once you hear this album, you’ll see behind the scenes of what used to be a young girl in her bedroom, now in a conference room with Epic Records in Los Angeles, California.
The album opens up with "Voices," a heavy and dark voice overshadowing Lauren’s as they sing about the voices in her head. Voices of hate and doubt bouncing around until the song slows down slightly, and she moves on. “And now this space here in my heart is opportunity,”
“Voices,” seamlessly transitions into “Big Shot / I Tried,” with the help of static that concludes the mood of the pilot track and moves into the similar, but different mood of “Big Shot.” It has the same simple club beat that sounds like a walk-on song for any other big shot. Lauren’s more confident, but humble. “Make some room for the big shot… I ain’t nothing but a big shot.” The song takes a turn much like the one in “Nights” by Frank Ocean, the mood completely switches into a new dimension. Lauren becomes more somber, drawn out like a low note. The music flows like summer water. It flows after the raw emotion of “I ain’t nothing but a big shot.” She’s been “Trying and fighting and lying to you, been lying for the truth.” This is one of my favorite songs off the album, it connects in such a subtle way you just might miss it.
“Conversations,” featuring DYSN continues in the same theme that “I Tried” ended with. Lauren’s moved on, she’s onto the next. But she used to love this girl that drained her. “I was just fine before you came to me… We’d have these conversations, and I won’t pick up the phone,” In the aftermath, Lauren learned to love herself. She’s not drained by this other being anymore, she’s her own person, what she always should have been.
“Time” pays homage to anyone who ever doubted Lauren, much like the song on her previous album, “I’ll Be Damned.” She does not have time for missing out on opportunities, dreams, and visions. This is a rare moment of bragging for her, she usually is humble and just continues working. She lets all that go, and lets the people know that she is independent, did everything through pure determination and hard work. The slower and more flowy beat differs from her previous project, “Center of Expression.”
Lauren is right at that sweet spot, where the self-made start to make it.
“Written in the Stars” has a slower, more instrumental feel to it than its predecessors. Listening to this feels like you’re laying on the coast with your friends, the sun setting just perfectly, enjoying the feeling of being there. Lauren’s fighting something unknown in this song, talking to herself to let it go, what is meant to be will be. It’s written in the stars. “Your heart so bold, so cold, so thrown, you fight right back / It doesn’t have to be so cold / & you don’t have to feel alone,”
In “Spaces,” Lauren talks to a younger self, the one that’s finding excuses for everything. Nearing the end of the album, she’s slowing down; digging deep through her memory and her passions. She’s going through the spaces in her mind. All beats were produced by Earl Saga, but this one takes the cake for me. It’s slow, flows perfectly with Lauren’s deep, more sullen tone of the song. Lauren talks to this younger, passionate girl that just keeps on dreaming. “Told her dreaming only goes so far / So go and chase them baby…” Dreaming isn’t what started Lauren’s success, action was. Continuous action and determination brought her to where she is now. She ends this lesson with a conclusion like no other, “I found myself wishin / Wishin for a better life, but I realized these were just spaces… We may never find our answer / But we always seem to try / To fill these spaces / Spaces that fill my mind.”
To wrap up her sophomore project, Lauren looked to the future with “Los Angeles,” a song with hope, dreams, and a beat. It’s an upbeat song with a more upbeat and fresh look on the future. She looks back when she was “sitting in my dad’s room, sitting in my bedroom / Talking bout the plans I would make,” She’s come so far since she started making music, it’s time to reflect on all that work. She’s now looking at it, saying, “What can I do now?” Lauren was living in Fort Wayne when she wrote, “Los Angeles is so close,” She’s almost there, almost at the top, and Lauren is not stopping until she gets there. Some may think Lauren got her way to LA through luck, through sheer chance, but once you hear this album, you’ll see behind the scenes of what used to be a young girl in her bedroom, now in a conference room with Epic Records in Los Angeles, California.