Lately＜White Cassette＞

Lilly Hiatts 2021 album Lately opens with Simple, a song about the pleasures of good conversation, spending time with family, and the ordinary things that make the days worthwhile. Its the sort of tune that could have appeared on any number of country albums from the 1970s onward, but here it sounds different -- coming from an artist who has been watching a world in chaos from the vantage point of her home during lockdown, theres a sense of longing that borders on need, a gentle desperation for the world to return to something familiar. Hiatts previous album Walking Proof had the poor fortune of being released in March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was shutting down a big part of the music business, and Lately was written after her touring was canceled and she was pondering a busted romance without welcome distractions. Its fitting that Lately is a simpler and more intimate work than Walking Proof and 2017s Trinity Lane, and the country accents are stronger, with warm melodies carrying the tunes and steel guitars and organ frequently adding atmosphere. Classic country songs were often founded on the stuff of ordinary lives, and thats clearly the case with this music, but the deliberately rough edges of Peach and Gem touch on the universal themes of post-breakup tension and malaise, and while Ride and Been are prettier on the surface, the ambient, atmospheric sounds that float in the background feel like ghosts in the room, reminding us of the frustration and anxieties that come with brooding over a life thats not going your way. Hiatt and producer Kate Haldrup (who also plays drums on the sessions) have crafted an album thats straightforward but not simple. Lately is full of the strong emotional honesty thats been one of Hiatts trademarks, whether shes singing about things happy or hurtful. The open spaces in these performances only add to the clarity, and her vocals are as incisive as her lyrics. Lately doesnt always sound like the album Lilly Hiatt might have cut under ordinary circumstances, but it comes from the heart and speaks to the time and place in which it was made. Its a compelling, generous work from a songwriter who grows a bit each time she heads into the studio. ~ Mark Deming