Lauren Daigle says her new self-titled album, part 1 of 2, “holds so much of what I care about”

Lauren Daigle‘s new self-titled album is out Friday, but it’s just the first part of a two-part, 20-song project. Lauren says she decided to split the album in two because it was too much to ask for people to listen to 20 songs all at once.

“It was long … listening from top to bottom, it was a chunk,” Lauren tells ABC Audio. “When you’re listening to 20 … songs, there’s some that fall through the cracks because you’re just digesting so much content. And I was like, ‘Wait, I’ve put my heart and soul into every one of these songs.’ So I don’t want one of these songs to fall through the cracks simply because of the duration.”

The album is Lauren’s first since 2018’s Look Up Child, which featured her smash hit “You Say.” But Lauren says she’s only recently started to feel the pressure to follow up that success.

“In the process of making the record, I didn’t even think about ‘You Say’ — I was so focused on what we were doing,” Lauren explains.

But now, she admits, “I’m like, ‘OK, is this the same as this? Or how is this doing versus that?’ And I’ve had to tell myself, ‘Lauren, comparison is the enemy of joy. Don’t compare it … let the process be what it is.”

As for why the album’s titled Lauren Daigle, the “Thank God I Do” singer says she has a good reason for that.

“People make records and they’re like, ‘Oh, this is the one I’ve waited my whole life to make,'” she says. “Y’know, they have those kind of milestone records. And I feel like that one is this for me.”

“This record holds so much of what I care about … it felt pretty apropos to make it a self-titled record.”