Lydia Loveless
Something Else liner notes
Released 8/23/24 (Bloodshot Records)
When I heard it had been a decade since Somewhere Else was released (yes, I had to be informed of the anniversary of my own record) I decided to do this on a bit of a whim. I figured it would be super easy, something done in a day. They’re my songs, after all, I wrote them, and I’ve been playing piano more regularly for quite a few years now! I came home from a grueling west coast tour and walked right into the studio to start the recording process. My partner had patiently charted the songs for me the day before at the laundromat. He was manning the board at Secret Studio while I started, stopped, started again, fumbled, realized I had no piano arrangements for these very raucous guitar songs. The prurient lyrical content written by my 22-year-old-self felt positively blush inducing in a little room with the person my 33-year-old-self is in love with, and the walls started to feel like they were closing in on me. Furthermore, I was sick as a dog and my voice sounded like I had been gargling gravel. The whole process needed a little more thought to it.
I took to my stack of journals and tried to figure out a little more about who wrote this record. I felt like I knew nothing about them. I discovered a lot of very tiny, practically illegible scribbles by a very angry person who seemed to hate themselves and everyone around them. I didn’t like much of what I was reading. The me of 2012-2013 was drowning in pain and insecurity and my own press, pissed off that nobody could see me for who I really was, what I had really been through, and how hard it was to be me. I was walled in by fears and worries that I would never be good enough. I was struggling with my voice after a debilitating virus and a six week tour. I had rented a little room in the Grandview neighborhood of Columbus and was plugging away on my splintered acoustic guitar with a tape recorder. I was frustrated as could be, not coming up with anything that I felt was “me” or even remotely song like. One day, when I finally thought I had a nugget of something, I read the lyrics aloud to my then husband and he looked at me confused and said, “what are you even trying to say in this, though? Who is the narrator?” I don’t remember what I said to that but I’m sure it wasn’t kind.
I don’t remember when things finally broke open for me but I’m certain it had to do with some romantic obsessions I was carrying around, past and present, and I decided to dig in my heels and not try to be accommodating with my words. It wasn’t doing me any favors to be an asshole only in my diary, I had to spill it all over the record too. And Somewhere Else was completed.
When I went back into the studio with my friend Caeleigh Featherstone recording me this go round, she looked at me at one point and said, “Were you singing these songs in front of old dudes? Like, your husband?” Yes, I was, I told her. We both shook our heads and laughed at the hubris on 22-year-old Lydia Loveless.
I slapped a Paul Verlaine quote on the original artwork that I’m not quite certain is real. I’ve only ever seen that particular translation in one long lost edition of his poetry. Still it’s a solid quote that resonates a lot harder now.
So much is owed to the band who played on this record originally. A lot of their parts are incorporated here. Some of them are still chugging along with me. Thanks to them. Todd May’s input is wildly apparent to me on this record. He always pushes me to think a little harder about what a song might need. Thanks for being a friend.
Finally, the name of this version of the record! Over the last 10 years I’ve been told by countless people, emotional and earnest, that their favorite record of mine is Something Else. I love that, and I nod in amused reverence to it here. I am also glad that at long last Chris Isaak will be spelled properly in the tracklist….
