Lilly Hiatt's 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. It's 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, there's a sense of longing that borders on need, a gentle desperation for the world to return to something familiar.
Hiatt's 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. It's fitting that
Lately is a simpler and more intimate work than
Walking Proof and 2017's
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 that's 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 that's not going your way.
Hiatt and producer Kate Haldrup (who also plays drums on the sessions) have crafted an album that's straightforward but not simple.
Lately is full of the strong emotional honesty that's been one of
Hiatt's trademarks, whether she's 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 doesn't 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. It's a compelling, generous work from a songwriter who grows a bit each time she heads into the studio. ~ Mark Deming