Lauv’s “how i’m feeling” Explores Mental Health and Relationships

The thoughts inside our own minds are plagued by our own experiences with love, life, and the dangerous world of social media, Lauv explores these thoughts and even shares his own experiences within his album, “how i’m feeling”. The all too familiar feeling of what if’s in a relationship, feeling out of touch with your friendships, and the toxicity of social media all are covered within this twenty-one track album.

Lauv released what is considered his debut album, setting it apart from his project titled “i met you when i was 18.”, on March 6. “how i’m feeling” differentiates itself from “i met you when i was 18.” as the songs cover many aspects of Lauv’s life as the entirety of that previous project covers one relationship that took place while he was attending college in New York.

The album opens up with the debut single, “Drugs & The Internet”. This song gives an insight into how he believes within today’s society it’s easy to lose sight of relationships and yourself in order to keep hold of a presence on the internet. Lyrics such as “And I don't wanna hit delete on the parts of me that they might hate,” emphasize these struggles.

Another song that captures the struggle of social media and disconnects would be “Modern Loneliness”, Lauv describes the feeling of how we can be connected to so many people, yet feel no real connection with them as mentioned in this song.

The songs “Changes” and “Sad Forever” also allows for Lauv to let the world in on mental health, while creating art many people can relate to. Both these songs describe the shift of one mental state to another, hopefully for the better.

Within the theme of relationships and mental health, the album also features “Tell My Mama”, where Lauv appears to be apologizing to his mother for all his behavior from his childhood up to who he is now.

This album truly separates itself from anything else Lauv has done as it includes many more features than his previous work, with all of those collaborations being with popular artists like BTS and Troye Sivan.

Songs like “fuck, i’m lonely” featuring Anne-Marie, “i’m so tired” with Troye Sivan, “Mean It” with LANY, “Canada” with Alessia Cara and “Who” featuring BTS, all follow the track of Lauv’s style within love songs. Though, the lyrics and production all vary throughout these songs making all of them unique.

The collaboration that sets itself apart from the rest is “El Tejano”. The song even without a feature is already different from Lauv’s usual style, but adding Mexican singer-songwriter Sofia Reyes to sing a verse in Spanish furthers the separation.

Another song that’s like an outlier on the album would be “Billy”, this track is different from Lauv’s typical style and is named after his Pomeranian he adopted in 2019. The song doesn’t speak about his dog though, instead, it’s Lauv’s perspective on his life and what he thought or thinks during certain times.

There are two songs on the album that share the feeling of wishing differently for a relationship, these songs being “Sims” and “Believed”.

“Sims” was released as a single, months before “how i’m feeling” was released and the music video introduced the concept for the album. The concept being every color representing a different part of Lauv and associating those with a song. Blue being hopeless romantic, red as spicy, green as goofy, yellow being positive, and orange being fuckboy.

“Lonely Eyes” is one of the most popular songs that isn’t a single on the album and tells the story of a girl Lauv feels he can connect to, without ever really telling the depth of the situation, but always wanting to be with her.

The remaining songs on the album contain Lauv’s talent lyrically and production-wise when it comes to love songs, whether they be for broken hearts or people in a relationship.

For those in a relationship, songs like “Tattoos Together”, “Feelings”, “Invisible Things” and “For Now” are a perfect example of what Lauv can tell lyrically. Though, “For Now” stands out amongst these four songs as it describes the emotions of being in a long-distance relationship.

Lastly, there is “Sweatpants” and “Julia”, both of these songs are very different from each other lyrically and within their production, but both mention heartbreak or the end of a relationship. “Julia” is more of an apology to his ex, Julia Michaels, and is a very stripped song with powerful lyrics, while “Sweatpants” is about getting over an ex and doing whatever he can to cope with the heartbreak.

Overall, “how i’m feeling” truly launched Lauv’s career to where it is now and has allowed him to make advances not only for himself within the music industry, but his foundation called “Blue Boy Foundation” where many of the songs he released as singles, their profit goes straight to that foundation, which then donates the money to mental health organizations. The production and lyrics don’t stray from what many Lauv fans found in “i met you when i was 18.”, but the growth from Lauv as an artist and a person can be found within “how i’m feeling”. Hopefully, Lauv’s message, whether about love or mental health, reaches everyone who needs to hear it.