Mary Lambert provided one of last year’s most noteworthy self-acceptance anthems with her Macklemore & Ryan Lewis collaboration, “Same Love,” but getting people to feel comfortable in their own skin is harder than it sounds.
“I realize that there were songs about empowerment and self-love and all these really wonderful messages coming out, but I felt like they were often tied up in this bow, like love yourself! Be who you are!” the 25-year-old singer says about her upcoming album, the appropriately titled Heart on My Sleeve, in an exclusive video premiering on TIME. “But it’s not cutting through — we’re still not being real about it.”
So on her single “Secrets,” the 25-year-old leads by example, talking about her bipolar disorder, her weight and other parts of her identity she’s learned to embrace. Lambert calls the track her “first fun song” that she recorded, and it’s easy to see why — having nothing to hide looks liberating.
Heart on My Sleeve hits stores on Oct 14. Listen to “Secrets” below in the meantime:
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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com