Lilly Hiatt’s last two albums were released during the pandemic and like many other artists at the time, she felt the negative effect of not being able to tour or promote her music in the way she wanted to.
During her last few years off the road she’s got married, adopted a dog, bought a house and installed a home studio where she began songwriting in a different, more immediate way. The results on this new album ‘Forever’ sound like someone shedding old skin, finding her way back to a more natural, looser kind of musical identity.
Inspired by Liz Phair and Mudhoney amongst other 90s icons, the album isn’t afraid to be a little grungey and unkempt like on heavy opener ‘Hidden Day’, which is a song about finding a secret escape from reality.
I’ve always been a sucker for slacker, scuzzy, 90s indie rock and that kind of imperfect perfection is what makes this album so engaging. The highlight is ‘Shouldn’t Be’ which addresses her own insecurities and how difficult it is sometimes to live the ‘right’ way. Musically it just soars, and feels like a more bittersweet cousin of her best song ‘Trinity Lane’.
There’s a couple of ghosts on this record – first ‘Ghost Ship’ where she is trying to escape the past and find something that leads her home, and ‘Evelyn’s House’ where she finds a place to live but discovers it’s haunted by the previous owner. Life is haunted by past lovers, past selves, past lives – in the end she seems to conclude there’s nothing much else you can do but try to live with the ghosts.
On the awesome title track ‘Forever’ she accepts the limitations of her loner identity declaring to her love that ‘I want to be by your side forever’ – like she’s speaking a simple marriage vow to the soundtrack of a great guitar riff. This leads in to the quiet acoustic strum of ‘Man’, where she seems astonished and grateful for finding this guy. Musically this track is more Americana sounding than the rest of the record and that softer vibe works well for this moment of vulnerability.
‘Kwik-E Mart’ is a cool, authentic, original love song about the every day moments where you find that connection with someone – and I love the retro video as well. Nostalgia concludes the album with ‘Thoughts’ where she accepts the passage of time and moves forward with a new sense of perspective: ‘it’s okay to let it go and ride.’
Look I was always going to love this record – I’m a 90s girl, brought up on the music that inspires ‘Forever’ and a fan of Lilly Hiatt’s previous albums but I really think this is her most cohesive and confident work yet. I found myself tearing up when her dad’s voicemail message plays at the end of the album and it’s fitting that an album with such heart finishes on the repeated words ‘I love you.’
Highway Queens 
Leave a comment