Real

Real

Real is one of those exciting records where you sense an artist truly hitting their stride. Whether you ve followed Lydia s career forever, or you re new to her game, Real is gonna grab your ears.<br>On her first two Bloodshot full-length releases, there were fevered comparisons to acknowledged music icons like Loretta Lynn, Stevie Nicks, and the Replacements... She s half this, half that, one part something else.<br>But now, Real and Lydia Loveless are reference points all their own: Genre-agnostic, Lydia and her road-tightened band stretch from soaring, singalong pop gems, roots around the edges, to proto-punk. There are many sources, but the album creates a sonic center all its own. Song to song, moment to moment, you might find yourself thinking that could be this, or there<br>are moments of that, but you are quickly transported away to another moment, another thought, another sound, another shot at honesty. Always a gifted songwriter, Lydia gives the full<br>and sometimes terrifying, sometimes ecstatic force to the word real. Struggles between balance and outburst, infectious choruses fronting emotional torment are sung with a sneer, a spit, or a tenderness and openness that is both intensely personal and relatably universal. It is, as the title suggests, real.