Review: Liz Longley- 'New Life'
It's been over a decade since Liz Longley, barely two years transplanted to her new home in Nashville, released her acclaimed self-titled debut album. In the years since, Longley has made a career out of sad songs, songs of lost loves, missed opportunities, and broken hearts. So now Longley, married with a new child, faces the toughest challenge of her songwriting career; writing about being happy. On her new album New Life, Longley finds inspiration in the big and the small, the things every mother worries about, and the things only a songwriter with Longley's talented songwriter's eye could put into words.
The album's best song is the playful “In a Mood.” Coming in at a compact 2:45, Longley muses on the rare moments new parents get to be romantic. In the song, she confronts a lover absorbed in a baseball game and missing some increasingly non-verbal cues. “It's a slow sport and I'm trying / but I'm bored as hell,” she laments before dumping the subtlety and saying “How about a home run / maybe two?” It's a song that couldn't have been written in a less secure relationship; the kind of gentle ribbing that comes from the comfortableness of a strong marriage.
“Different Lover” is another look at the change in romantic priorities that come with parenthood. Longley reflects on the advice, scoffed at during its delivery, that relationships change with parenthood. “Everyone said how hard it'd be / We were young and dumb and so naive / Ain't it sweet we believed / We were different, lover.”
“The Last One” reflects on how parenting changes friendships, and mourns friendships lapsed. “I'm the last one to know how you're doing these days / The last one to know your phone number changed / The last one you call when times are tough.”
But it's her muses on parenthood that hit hardest across the entire album, both good and bad. The title track is devastating in its delivery that “I brought new life / to a dying planet.” But there is a thread of hope even here as she sings “Maybe you're the clarity in all of this static.”
Another standout track is album closer “Can't Get Enough.” It's a mother's recitation of the small things in life that she can't wait to see her daughter experience for the first time. Here, it's the little things; a faithful dog, rain on a window, “mama's pancakes” and “a back scratch in just the right spot.”
Alongside Grammy-nominated producer Paul Moak (Marc Broussard, Matt Kearney, Carolina Story), Longley crafts an album that is completely different than anything she's done before, while never losing that familiar mix of Americana, soul, indie rock, and pop that has made Longley successful throughout her career.