Thoughts on music: Somewhere Else

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

New Music 2016 - Part 37 - Lydia Loveless - Real

OK. Here I go again - there's no rest for the wicked!
Or, for that matter, the followers of those independent record labels that really matter so much once again. Here is the latest from just one such, and the welcome return of a very significant artist with her third (or fourth, maybe) LP.

Lydia Loveless - Real (Bloodshot Records, BS239, 19 August 2016).

Lydia Loveless - Real:

Same to You
Longer
More Than Ever
Heaven
Out On Love
Midwestern Guys
Bilbao
European
Clumps
Real

'Longer' is the first track from the album to be revealed:

Somewhere Else (2014) was a fine album, indeed it still is. There is, however, no reason to suppose that it was the high-water mark of Lydia Loveless' career or ambition. She has kept the same core musicians again and also producer Joe Viers. The album was recorded in Columbus, OH.

It may even be too 'real' for some folks' taste. She has never been shy of unlovely images, or raising awkward subjects, and it looks like they are here aplenty; that's just how it rolls.

Thursday, March 06, 2014

New Music 2014 - Part 8

While my recent posts about live music have a very obvious UK (indeed English) folk bias, and the next live act that I'm going to see is Spiers and Boden, that is not the case with the ongoing posts on new music which, even if the artists are UK based, draws heavily on US traditions and that is certainly true of both the artists featured in this post.
Both are 2014 releases by US-based independent record labels and both are by female artists. These are not country, alt-or-otherwise, but neither are they country rock either. They are not an incomprehensible change but, ultimately, they are what they are. I like them, which matters more than anything, and that is why they are here.

Angel Olsen - Burn Your Fire For No Witness - Jagjaguwar Records, 2014.

Slightly more challenging is this next, released by Bloodshot Records and an album perhaps inadequately described as 'country punk'. It is a demanding listen, no doubt about that, but it is well worth any effort that this involves.