SXSW 2014 Records

Lydia Loveless

Anyone who had complaints about Lydia Loveless sounding like Neko Case on her Bloodshot debut, 2011's Indestructible Machine, will be glad to know that the young Ohioan has matured past that on follow-up Somewhere Else. Loveless still occasionally shares Case's lusty punk attitude, but her songs jangle and bop in all the right ways, and her emotions sound quite a bit less affected. Lyrically, Loveless can still hit a clinker ("Verlaine Shot Rimbaud") or two ("Head"), but the yearning in "Everything's Gone" and pain expressed with "Hurts So Bad" illustrate she's come a long way in expressing universal emotions. A rootsy rendition of Kirsty MacColl's "They Don't Know" ends the disc curiously, its poppy nature sticking out in the noisy landscape she creates. Maybe Loveless doesn't mean for it to follow the lust and heartbreak in her songs as anything other than a good song. (10pm, Continental Club)