My kind of album.
Today, Nashville native and up-and-comer Lauren Watkins released her debut studio album The Heartbroken Record, which covers every single aspect of heartbreak you can imagine with incredible wit, strength and depth.
Lauren is a fantastic songwriter, releasing several great EP’s over the last couple years called Introducing: Lauren Watkins and Introducing: The Heartbreak that showcase her unique writing and vintage sound that is always so simple and beautiful.
A co-writer on every single song, the Nashville native is obviously a songwriter first, and that is so apparent on this album and makes it all so cohesive and connected.
As a music nerd, I appreciate an artist that can not only do it all, but do it all well, and Lauren says this project represents the past several years of her life, which, as you guessed it, have been filled with heartbreak and she’s ready to finally get it off her chest (though she’s since moved on and just got married in May).
While there’s plenty of country songs about heartbreak and being sad (it’s kind of a specialty), this album is unique in the fact that she covered every aspect of the range of emotions you feel in the grieving process of a bad breakup:
“I’m a writer myself, and I love writing, but I also work with really talented people and so I feel lucky that I can just kind of be a part of that. We love a song title that we can go hard and and create a theme, and I love like witty little one-liners and and stuff like that.
So that’s all over the record, and also like you said it is ‘The Heartbroken Record,’ but it’s not just a collection of like heart-wrenching, bedroom crying songs. It’s all the sides of heartbreak, which are good and bad, and so there’s a lot of feel-good songs, there’s a lot of bedroom crying songs, but I think that’s the cool thing.
Like, if that doesn’t describe a heartbreak, I don’t know what does, you know what I mean? I like that there’s so many sides to it.”
Lauren is a native of Music City, but left town to attend college at Ole Miss with no intentions of every becoming an artist. Over time, she started to feel the pull towards music and more and more, and before she knew it, she was playing gigs around Oxford and fully embracing being a songwriter, as well.
She says she started “writing her a** off,” playing local bars and cutting her teeth, so to speak, doing lengthy cover sets while honing her craft:
“I thrived in college and I loved it so much there. I got to experience a new town that I never would have I got to meet all these friends. I got to meet boys and have my heart broken, live…
About halfway through I realized, alright, everybody’s going, everybody’s deciding what they’re gonna do when they graduate, and this and that. And I’m like, well I gotta decide. And I had to be honest with myself and go, my passion is music.
Everybody’s chasing their passions, and I have one too. I’m just not chasing it. So there were some very significant moments where I realized this is what I want to be doing.”
And I’d say it paid off for her, as she went on to sign a record deal with Big Loud/Songs & Daughters and opened a leg of Morgan Wallen’s U.S. stadium show tour this year.
Like I said, she is a featured as a songwriter on all 17-songs on the tracklist, which also features co-writes some of Nashville’s best writers in Jessie Jo Dillon, Ashley Monroe, Luke Laird, Nicolle Galyon and many more.
Additionally, Lauren teamed up with Sheryl Crow on a song called “Set My Heart On Fire,” which is an easy standout among a very impressive debut record that includes tons of great songs like “Gatlinburg,” “Sad Songs and You,” “One Trick Pony” and so many more.
If you like the stylings of old school, classic country, the effortless listening of 90’s country hits, and timeless, brilliant songwriting that hits you right in the heart with both humor and deep emotion, this album is for you and Lauren is a name to keep your eye on.
I’d highly recommend checking out the whole album, because the pre-released songs like “Anybody But You,” “Settling Things,” and “Fly On The Wall” are top tier, but I’ve also listed some of my favorites below if you want a good place to start.
“Gatlinburg”
“Sad Songs and You”
“Set My Heart On Fire feat. Sheryl Crow)”
“One Trick Pony”
And I’ll leave you with my favorite and easy standout, “Settling Things”:
The Heartbroken Record tracklist:
Leavers Leave (Lauren Watkins, Lance Miller, Brad Warren, Brett Warren)
Mama, I Made It (Lauren Watkins, Rocky Block, Lauren Hungate)
Heartbroken Record (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Caroline Watkins)
Sad Songs And You (Lauren Watkins, Lauren Hungate)
Set My Heart On Fire (feat. Sheryl Crow) (Lauren Watkins, Emily Landis, Summer Overstreet, Lydia Vaughan)
Stuck In My Ways (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, David Garcia, Emily Landis)
Gatlinburg (Lauren Watkins, Jessie Jo Dillon, Carter Faith, Lauren Hungate, Ashley Monroe, Caroline Watkins)
Anybody But You (Lauren Watkins, Rodney Clawson, Mark Holman, Ernest Keith Smith)
Settling Things (Lauren Watkins, Lauren Hungate, Luke Laird)
One Trick Pony (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Lydia Vaughan, Caroline Watkins)
Fly On The Wall (feat. Jake Worthington) (Lauren Watkins, Andy Sheridan, Brad Warren, Brett Warren)
Shirley Temple (Lauren Watkins, Nicolle Galyon, Meg McRee)
Pretend You’re Coming Home (feat. Ashley Monroe) (Lauren Watkins, Ashley Monroe, Mark Trussell)
Jealous Of Jane (Lauren Watkins, Brad Warren, Brett Warren, Caroline Watkins)
Cowboys On Music Row (feat. Carter Faith) (Lauren Watkins, Jessie Jo Dillon, Carter Faith, Lauren Hungate, Ashley Monroe, Caroline Watkins)
Burn The Bridge (Lauren Watkins, Will Bundy, Emily Landis, Mark Trussell)
Too Much To Dream (Lauren Watkins, Forrest Finn, Nicolle Galyon)
