Imagine a punk rock Loretta Lynn or Patsy Cline. In a very superficial way, that would be the 21-year-old singer songwriter Lydia Loveless.
In reality, however, such a trite description doesn’t really do justice to the gems on this album. Raw, honest, intelligent, wryly funny, for such a young talent Loveless displays an awesome amount of promise.
The twanging country roots are plain to hear, but so is the rattling power of pure punk, and the crackling combination is sublim. For soul-laid-bare sentiment look no further than More Like Them; for a drawling, couldn’t-give-a-fuck rock’n’country hoedown check out Bad Way To Go; for sheer dramatic cleverness we have the tongue-in-cheek, dark stalker comedy that is Steve Earle.
Spiritually somewhere in the same musical and lyrical ballpark as the Bottle Rockets, Old 97s and the mighty Slobberbone, Lydia Loveless is definitely one to watch.
