ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
August 28, 2024
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
This week, we celebrate the release of Something Else by Lydia Loveless by selecting thirty (30) of our favorites from her catalog. We're not looking too far back for this Episode, starting with Loveless' 2011 Indestructible Machine album, though there was at least one previous release that's not available via Spotify. Nevertheless, their are few artists whose work has meant as much to us since the turn of the century. When we published a list of our favorite releases for the 2010's, Indestructible Machine was given the very top spot. Every LP since has held a place among our year-end favorites, including 2016's Real, which we selected as our favorite that year.
While their 2011 record held sway for years as the epitome of Lydia Loveless' work, more recently those follow-ups have increased in our estimation as more mature songwriting. Instead of sinking into the character they had created for Machine, Loveless shifted their attention in more of an indie-pop direction, digging deep into more genuine emotions, more nuanced humor. In retrospect, the buzzsaw alt.country of Machine, while still very satisfying, is not what we think of when we consider the songwriter's oeuvre.
Loveless' new project doesn't simply answer What would these songs sound like if I played them on piano. Their voice and approach to a song have also changed over the decade since the initial appearance of Somewhere Else. In a review of an early album we proclaimed Lydia Loveless' voice as rivaling Maria McKee, though it's also less restrictive, allowing the singer to venture further into indie territory, though never losing the defining twang that cemented their initial appeal. Beyond that, Lydia Loveless has proven to be among the strongest songwriters of their generation, deserving of an audience beyond the boundaries of roots music.
We've included a pair of covers among our thirty favorites. Loveless' take on Kirsty MacColl's pure pop song "They Don't Know" is iconic. And it took guts to release a cover of Justin Bieber's ubiquitous "Sorry". So sue us (and see also last year's take on Rilo Kiley with Jason Hawk Harris).
LYDiA LOVELESS: thirty favorites
- "Bad Way To Go" Indestructible Machine (Bloodshot, 11)
- "How Many Women" Indestructible Machine
- "Jesus Was a Wino" Indestructible Machine
- "Steve Earle" Indestructible Machine
- "All I Know" Boy Crazy EP (Bloodshot, 13)
- "Boy Crazy" Boy Crazy EP
- "Really Wanna See You" Somewhere Else (Bloodshot, 14)
- "Wine Lips" Somewhere Else
- "To Love Somebody" Somewhere Else
- "Verlaine Shot Rimbaud" Somewhere Else
- "Somewhere Else" Somewhere Else
- "They Don't Know (Kirsty MacColl cover)" Somewhere Else
- "Same To You" Real (Bloodshot, 16)
- "Longer" Real
- "European" Real
- "Clumps" Real
- "Sorry (Justin Bieber cover)" single (Bloodshot, 17)
- "Blind" Boy Crazy and Single(s) (Bloodshot, 17)
- "Come Over" Boy Crazy and Single(s)
- "Dead Writer" Daughter (Bloodshot, 20)
- "Love Is Not Enough" Daughter
- "Wringer" Daughter
- "When You're Gone" Daughter
- "Let's Make Out" single (Bloodshot, 21)
- "Poor Boy" Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again (Bloodshot, 23)
- "Sex and Money" Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again
- "Runaway" Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again
- "Toothache" Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again
- "Summerlong" Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again
- "Chris Isaak" Something Else (Bloodshot, 24)
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