Lydia Loveless is in their villain era

by V. S. Wells on January 23rd, 2024 at 1:38 PM

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Last fall, Lydia Loveless released one of the best albums of their storied career.

It took them three years to put it together—in between heartbreak, taking sound engineering classes, and spoiling their cat—and the whole thing is a bit of a haze.

“There was a lot of healing on this record,” Loveless says over a Zoom call, “which is why I almost barely remember doing it—because I was just in the zone.”

We’re speaking during a brief reprieve from the road. Loveless is touring their fearsome sixth album, Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again, which sees them return to long-time musical home (and alt-country standard-bearers) Bloodshot Records.

Not that it was a smooth journey: Loveless departed Bloodshot in 2019, after they revealed that founder Nan Warshaw had been covering up her partner’s long-time sexual harassment of their staff and artists, and released 2020’s Daughter on their own label. Bloodshot was bought out by Exceleration Music in 2021, and the revamped label re-signed some of its former artists in 2023—including Loveless.

(Loveless, for their part, doesn’t necessarily love being considered a punk-country mainstay. “I would consider this record to be a pop record, or at least pop-rock,” they offer. “But there’s always pop influence in my music, so if you tell someone you’re making pop music, they’re not going to picture what I’m picturing.” Their number-one dream collaborator? Post Malone.)

That professional return to familiar ground is mirrored by Loveless’ personal life. While the album charts new musical territory for them—it’s softer, more ambiguous, largely delivered from the eerie calm in the eye of the hurricane than some of their earlier offerings—they wrote it while moving back to their hometown of Columbus, Ohio, “doing a lot of couch surfing” following a bad breakup.

Coming home as an adult never quite feels the same: even if a place doesn’t change, your perception of it does. Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again sits in that nebulous territory, looking at some classic musical themes—love, fame, death—with experienced eyes.

The album opener, “Song About You,” feels like it could fit right into the Magnetic Fields’ 99 Love Songs, foregrounding music as the lens through which they view relationships. “Poor Boy”—a honky-tonk-twanged banger reflecting on how easily Loveless could ruin someone’s life, but choosing not to—shows a pointed level of self-awareness, as does “Do The Right Thing”, which sees Loveless sighing that they probably shouldn’t confess their feelings to someone in a “delicate” relationship “just for the rush of watching your eyes lighting up.”

“I’m definitely a villain on this record,” Loveless muses. “I’m integrating the darker parts of me into my conscious existence, which I think helped me acknowledge things that were really holding me back personally and professionally.”

Digging into the dark stuff is always rich musical ground. There are frank discussions of depression and anxiety, slipped smoothly into the lyrics. “Sex and Money” laments the life of a touring musician with “I gotta make a living/I just don’t have the will to live anymore.” Meanwhile, synth-dripping ballad “Runaway” sees Loveless “disassociating down at Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar.”

“I didn’t really think twice about putting a line about disassociating in my record, because the dialogue has changed so much,” Loveless reflects. “Maybe a few years before, I would have been more nervous about exposing myself or feeling embarrassed about it—but everyone is kind of discussing it now. I guess that helped me creep out a little bit.”

As they wrote their latest album in a haze of strong emotions—and largely alone—they weren’t sure how fans would react. The response, both online and in person, has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Hearing that I’ve grown as a songwriter, or that people are really connecting with the songs, has been really cool,” they say. “I felt so isolated when I was writing this record. I was afraid I wasn’t really going to come across as anything relatable—maybe there were moments when I was being too personal. But that hasn’t been the case.”

We’ve all thought about blowing up someone’s life for the hell of it—and, usually, like Loveless, thought better of it. But sometimes it’s fun to play the bad guy—even if it is just for a three-minute song.