Lydia Loveless once seemed to embody the hard-core punk urgency of alternative twang, pulling no punches with in-your-face attitude. On Real (out August 19 on Bloodshot Records), she appears to have matured into fellow Ohioan Chrissie Hynde, tempering that attitude with warmer melodies and more inventive arrangements than previously, yet still not blunting the emotional power and turmoil that have made her such a blast of fresh energy. And if she broadens her audience and achieves wider exposure, good for her.
Both the closing title song and “Out of Love” could fit just fine on a classic Pretenders album, without sounding retro in the slightest. Throughout the album, Loveless pushes her music in some revelatory directions, sounding a little like Lydia Mellencamp on “Midwestern Guys,” extending her voice’s upper register on a few cuts, stripping the arrangement to acoustic guitar on “Clumps,” showing more melodic sophistication on the mid-tempo balladry of “More Than Ever,” embracing the pop lilt of “Longer.” Yet love remains somewhere between a contact sport and an indelicate balance in her material.
The twangiest honky-tonk shuffle of the bunch is “European,” more of a nod than much of the rest to what she has done before. The difference is that her earlier recordings were pretty restricted to a band’s live-in-the-studio dynamics. With this one, it seems she took more time, and took more chances. And has opened herself to all sorts of possibilities.
