Posts Tagged ‘Somewhere Else’

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Two years after the critical success of her breakout second album, “Indestructible Machine”, Lydia Loveless emerges from the trenches of hometown Columbus, OH with the gloves off and brimming with confidence on Somewhere Else. While her previous album was described as “hillbilly punk with a honky-tonk heart” (Uncut), this one can’t be so quickly shoehorned into neat categorical cubbyholes. No, things are different this time around—Loveless and her band have collectively dismissed the genre blinders and sonic boundaries that come from playing it from a safe,familiar place.
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Writing from this new-found place of conviction, Lydia crafted 10 songs that are stark in their honesty, self-examination,and openness. Somewhere Else is more elemental than any of Loveless’s previous material; it’s about longing for the other, whether that’s something emotional, physical, or mental, all anchored by her arresting voice that sounds beyond her years. Creatively speaking, if Indestructible Machine was an all-night bender, Somewhere Else is the forlorn twilight of the next day, when that creeping nostalgia has you looking back for someone, something, or just… anything.

Blessed with a commanding, blast-it-to-the-back-of-the-room voice, the 23-year-old Lydia Loveless was raised on a family farm in Coshocton, Ohio—a small weird town with nothing to do but make music. With a dad who owned a country music bar, Loveless often woke up with a house full of touring musicians scattered on couches and floors.

When she got older, in the time-honored traditions of teenage rebellion, she turned her back on these roots, moved to the city (Columbus, OH) and immersed herself in the punk scene, soaking up the musical and attitudinal influences of everyone from Charles Bukowski to Richard Hell to Hank III.

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Lydia Loveless only ever looks over her shoulder when the wind’s in her face and she needs to spit. And she probably needs to. Desire lodges in her chest like a phlegm-clot; her mucosal tone earns those Stevie Nicks comparisons you’ve maybe seen. But you’ve got to imagine Stevie stripped of her scarves and witchery by a resentful coven, abandoned in Columbus, Ohio, with nothing to fall back on but her innate grit, developing the array of vocal slurs, catches, yawps, and leaps that a woman starting out with no expectations needs once she realizes she wants the world. And if that doesn’t work out, and Loveless has to retreat defeated to her dumpy hometown? “I’ll find a rich man’s house and I’ll burn it down.” Which come to think of it, doesn’t really sound all that unreasonable.

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Loveless’s powerful and assured vocals set against a wall of bristling guitars make for a potent combination. “Somewhere Else” is a rock and roll tour-de-force, filled with songs that strike the perfect blend of vulnerability and take no shit attitude, Ive included a solo piece here as well