Mary Lambert’s debut album Heart on My Sleeve broke through the surface of the music industry on October 14, 2014. Lambert may best be known for featuring on the Grammy-winning single “Same Love” for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Lambert appeared in the chord of the “Same Love” single repeatedly stating, “I can’t change, even if I tried, even if I wanted to”. This shows that Lambert is who she is, and she cannot change because she is who she is. Lambert then goes on asking questions showing insight to what she wishes in her future partner.

The opening line “I’ve got bi-polar disorder/my **** not in order” to Lambert’s lead single “Secrets” seems as to be declare to the world where nothing is personal for her to express through her own music. She ends the song with an opera aria and then erupts into giggles displaying her carefree and showing that she doesn’t take herself so seriously. The tone of the music is very rhythmic as if it were a hand/thigh clapping melody to it.

“I felt like there were a lot of songs coming out about self-empowerment and challenging beauty standards, and I wanted to write a song along those same lines, but in my voice,” Lambert states. Although Mary Lambert came from a problematic childhood due to the fact that she came from a strict Catholic family in which was not a healthy environment due to her father treating her badly. She does not let that define her; she wields all vague emotion through her voice and music. Mary expresses her deeper side in her song “Ribcage” with the opening line “Living in the darkness/I wear it like a crown/always got tough skin/ready for my bow.” Using spoken word poetry, Lambert manifests her openness as a singer-songwriter, and vents her frustration with life.

“I can only write about the experiences I’ve had. I signed a major label. I went through a break-up. I figured out how to be an independent person. I have been terrifyingly honest to the public about traumatic events in my life. I met the woman of my dreams. I have been on the road nonstop, away from those I love, but with the opportunity to sing about gay rights to hundreds of thousands of people. This album is inspired by the depth of that love, and the journey that it that it takes to get there,” Mary said.

Mary Lambert shares that “Heart on My Sleeve,” the title of the album was picked due to the fact that she believes it sums up how she approaches writing the lyrics on the album. Lambert allows all the trauma and dark times to be her guidance in her musical journey. She willingly challenges close-minded people to let others be themselves. She may be an overweight lesbian with a troubled past to the media, but she is so much more than that and is determined to prove it.