New York-based artist Lauren Minear shares her transformative new album, Boxing Day, featuring the fragile, urgent lead single, “Bruise.” Written in the aftermath of betrayal and self-reflection, the record traces a path through anger, shame, acceptance, and ultimately liberation. With raw confessional lyrics and immersive soundscapes that blend alternative, pop, rock, and folk, Boxing Day is Minear’s most ambitious work to date.
Minear began writing the record in July 2023, after cutting ties with a creative agency she discovered had been stealing from her. “I always write my way through intense feelings,” she explains. “But I realized that the anger and shame I was experiencing went deeper than just this one conflict. These songs allowed me to confront patterns of repressed anger and codependency, and to liberate myself from them in the process.”
“Bruise,” a song inspired by the paradox of loving someone who also causes deep pain. Acoustic and guitar-driven, the track reveals the sadness that lies beneath anger, reinforced by Minear’s choice to sing the chorus in falsetto to highlight fragility. “We wrote ‘Bruise’ on Day 4 of our Woodstock sessions, bundled up in coats in a freezing guest house,” she recalls. “The environment and the song were well suited, because we ended up with something that sounds fragile. I think the cold added some urgency.”
“Bruise” draws on themes of survival, shame, and self-overcoming, and for Minear, singing it still stirs discomfort. “It was painful to write and, for a long time, painful to sing,” she admits. “I’m working on that.”
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