Lydia Loveless Accolades
Comparing yourself to your erstwhile peers is rarely a positive experience, and it’s something that Ohio-based singer-songwriter Lydia Loveless said they’d never do. Not only is the music business financially contracting at an alarming rate, but overall stability, in end-stage capitalism America, is a fleeting concept. So while Loveless realizes that their rate of “progress” and general life-as-milestones can’t be measured against any definable standard, it’s all too natural to make those comparisons anyway. That’s the concept at the heart of Loveless’s new EP, Accolades – why am I here, and is there where I should be?
The album’s title track (the first of two versions on the EP) leads off the record with a recall to the good ol’ days – “Gonna get my hands on a rotary phone/Prank call my baby’s childhood home/And see if he’s still got a yo-yo I can throw.” Nostalgia, though, isn’t truly the point of this driving rock tune; rather. It’s more about what Loveless needs today – praise and success are good, but love is even better: “The warmth and sweetness of your embrace/I need it more than the accolades.” The near-cinematic “Let Me Get My Hopes Up,” featuring French horn from Jeremiah Frederick and a lovely piano line from one of my favorite musicians, John Calvin Abney, ups the emotional ante, with Loveless striving to see beyond the limits of their current horizon – “Let me glide above the downward spiral/Let me float another couple miles.”
Existential questions aside, Lydia Loveless has made a serious dent in the Americana-adjacent world – playing and recording with luminaries like Drive-By Truckers, Lilly Hiatt and The Mountain Goats, and, on Accolades, working with in-demand producer Matt Ross-Spang. Recording the EP in Memphis availed them of a wealth of solid session musicians, while also adding horns and woodwinds arranged by Marc Franklin, making the songs feel “bigger” without overwhelming the lyrics. “Oklahoma,” penned while out on the road with Patterson Hood, is a plaintive, 80s-inflected wish for domesticity – “I miss the days of dreaming of a beautiful house/With more than dirty dishes and a hand-me-down couch.” But “Avoiding Highways,” even as it seems to slag on the road, points to where Loveless belongs. The wistful ballad, which shows off Loveless’s vocal chops, has the singer picturing themself back in that imaginary ideal – “Heat a pan, scrub a pot, try to be someone I’m not.” The only alternative to admitting defeat – “A townie who once had a dream that never came to be” – is to get back on the damn highway and keep driving. Loveless is where they should be, even if it’s never the same place.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Accolades Reprise” – Where the EP-opening take on the title track is a pretty straightforward rocker, this acoustic/piano exploratory swirl has a very resolute Loveless spitting out their words – “People ask how I spend my time/Mostly going out of my fucking mind” – with just enough vinegar to ensure they won’t be satisfied staying home.
Accolades was produced by Matt Ross-Spang and Lydia Loveless, engineered and mixed by Ross-Spang and mastered by Justin Perkins. All songs written by Lydia Loveless. Musicians on the album include Loveless (vocals, guitar, synth, Farfisa), Todd May (bass, guitar, background vocals), Jay Gasper (guitar, bass), John Calvin Abney (keys, guitar, piano, background vocals), Sam Brown (drums, background vocals), Marc Franklin (trumpet, horn and woodwind arrangements), Ken Spain (trombone), Jeremiah Frederick (French horn), Michael Scott (bassoon) Gary Topper (clarinet) and Delara Hashemi (flute),
Go here to order/stream Accolades (out October 30): https://shop.bloodshotrecords.com/release/616087-lydia-loveless-accolades
https://lydialoveless.lnk.to/accolades
Check out tour dates here: https://www.lydialoveless.com/tour
Enjoy some of our previous coverage here: Show Review: Justin Townes Earle and Lydia Loveless at OKC’s Tower Theater Could Be Concert of the Year