Lydia Loveless’ sixth album continues her heart on her sleeve songwriting, ushering in tunes about struggles of all kinds throughout Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again. It is less a breakup record and more of a struggling-to-come-to-grips album, that is working through the pain; Loveless has lived hard times, but keeps on keepin’ on.
Loveless sets the tone around echoey guitars on “Song About You” with Jay Gonzalez (Drive-By Truckers) on piano/digital mellotron and Matt Combs plucking strings as the love song with nothing to say places her desperation front and center. “Poor Boy” is an upbeat rocker with banging drums and layers of synths around relationship worries while “French Restaurant” takes the same route, just with more arena bombast.
Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again moves far away sonically from Loveless’ twangy roots. The closest to Americana is the spritely “Ghost”, but even on that track, producer/recording engineer Sean Sullivan (John Hiatt) and Loveless use crunchy guitars and vibrating aesthetics to color the tale. The pure piano ballad closer “Summerlong” is stripped down but for the majority of the album Loveless is happy to stack up radio-friendly tactics.
A major influence seems to have been prime-era Fleetwood Mac filtered through a modern sound, as tracks like “Runaway” take Loveless’ flat-out suicidal thoughts and pair them with dancey beats, synths, and new wavey sounds. The combo can be powerful as Loveless sings/dances their pain away with other similar efforts like the ringing guitar with a galloping beat of “Do The Right Thing” and “Feel” which incorporates shoegaze splashed dream-pop as well.
Twisting back towards a more straight rocking approach, Loveless lets it all hang out on “Sex and Money” with excellent backing vocals from Michelle Sullivan before (perhaps the best of the bunch) the Tom Petty-sounding “Toothache”, which opens up on the blacktop and cruises with great bass work from Mark Connor and sweet organs sounds from Gonzalez as Loveless sings her heart out around chunky riffs.
Lydia Loveless’ Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again is a cathartic release without a strong resolution, as the journey is the focus, staying strong through heartbreak, mental stress, and much more.
