Lydia Loveless today shared “Runaway,” a gently crushing standout single off their new album Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again, due out September 22nd, 2023, via Bloodshot Records. The track opens with a floating piano chord, slowly building with detailed, multifaceted flourishes to a memorable chorus that showcases her powerhouse vocals: “I don’t like to run, I just like to run away.” While Loveless’ lyricism often sparkles with her quick wit, this song is a stunning display of her raw vulnerability and propensity for honest, heart-wrenching writing.
“This was one of the very first songs I wrote for this record,” Loveless (she/her/they/them) explains. “I hated it, but my friend Amy was giving me assignments and pushing me to write my way through heartache while I was crashing on her couch. She would send me out with a notebook and tell me not to come back until I had something. Eventually this one grew on me and is now actually my favorite to sing on the whole record. It’s deeply personal and gut-wrenching to perform. It’s about not wanting my relationship to end but knowing things weren’t ever going to improve. I’m especially proud of the instrumentation, particularly the guitar part at the end that had everyone calling me Mark Knopfler when I came out of the booth.”
“Runaway” follows the album’s anthemic lead single “Toothache,” which earned praise and support from Rolling Stone (Songs You Need), Pitchfork, NPR Music (NMF playlist),Stereogum, UPROXX (“vibrates with the brazen confidence of that album title”), Brooklyn Vegan, Exclaim!, Under the Radar, and many more. Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again—named one of Pitchfork’s most anticipated albums of the year—is not only a break-up record drifting back to some of the best of its kind, like Richard & Linda Thompson’s Shoot Out the Lights, Superchunk’s Foolish and, of course, Fleetwood Mac’sRumors. It’s also a reminder to keep improving oneself, taking ownership and moving forward—alone, if needed. A follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2020 LP Daughter, it recommences the evolution of Loveless: a fiercely brave writer who bluntly assesses their life in song.
Around 2020’s release of Daughter on their own label, Loveless was living in North Carolina with their boyfriend at the time, stuck, away from the stages that they grew up on, isolated from their family, and going stir-crazy. As the world came undone and then back together again, Loveless returned to Columbus, OH, where her career first began. Starting anew, she found part-time work at a recording studio (Secret Studios) and began processing the last two years of her life. The title of her new album, Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again, came easy—like a mantra from the heavens.
Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again is a bold declaration from a person who has survived a lot. Here Loveless lay out not only their pain—mining at times desolate subject matter like struggles with alcohol and depression, a breakup with their longtime boyfriend, and uncertainty about the future—but also the strength and resiliency they’ve earned along the way, that only Loveless could hold.
