The Lied To's Release Third Full-Length Album 'The Worst Kind of New'

The common thread that has always run through The Lied To's music has been their grit, honesty and harmony - and it's still present on their new release, The Worst Kind of New, out today.

But their third full-length album ventures into a new season: both members, Doug Kwartler and Susan Levine, lost parents during the making of the record, which profoundly impacted their perspective. The characters in these songs are no longer lamenting about being lied to or hurt by others, but instead are looking at the lies they tell themselves and belief systems that may no longer serve them or hold true.

Like their first two releases, their self-titled debut released in 2015 and The Lesser of Two Evils in 2018, The Worst Kind of New explores the challenges of relationships. But where those first two albums chronicled the losing and rebuilding of relationships in the wake of divorce, The Worst Kind of New digs deep into the next stage of life, examining loss, grief, memory, and the desire for love and self-acceptance.

The album's sonic landscape feels tastefully understated yet also deep and cinematic. The musical palette ranges from a lone vocal to full band with textured guitars, strings, synthesizers and organs. "I wanted to slightly break away from the more traditional 'Americana' sounds," Kwartler says. "And also blend in an impressionistic landscape that reflects the stories in the album and the questions they ask, which are often ambiguous and mysterious.

The Worst Kind of New opens with the sparse beauty of "Midnight Kiss," a New Year's resolution written by Levine. "In that way, it felt like the perfect start to the record," she says. "Every year I make lists of things I want to change, and every year cultivating more gratitude is at the top." The song was written before her mother's death, but its meaning intensified after the loss. "My mother's death was very sudden, and I didn't have the chance to say the things I wanted to say. It was a wake-up call. You need to appreciate what you have and tell the people in your life you love them while you can."

"It's Not Who You Love" follows with a mantra of sorts, a spirited track that finds the pair reminding themselves, "It's not who you love/it's who loves you."

Time and memory wind their way through the record as integral threads in the non-linear patchwork of grief. "Long Lonesome Road," written by Kwartler after his father's death, is a haunting country lament that turns the cliche 'time heals all wounds' on its head. Later in the album, Levine's song, "Time," explores the same terrain as it relates to a failed romantic relationship. The narrator claims that the best thing about time is that memories fade, all while recounting their relationship in excruciating detail.

The narrators in the rowdy country rocker "Two Days" and the contemplative ballad "Other Side of Gone" could be characters on opposite sides of the same story. The first is waiting for his partner to tell him whether she's staying or going, and the second is struggling with whether she should stay or go, and how to move forward without letting the past drag her back.

Covers of Tom Waits' "Long Way Home" and Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons," as well as two bonus tracks of live performances at the end of the record, beautifully showcase the interplay between Levine and Kwartler's guitars and vocals.

The final song of the record, "It's Only Love" begins with a stark, lone, fingerpicked guitar and culminates in the soaring chorus, "It's only love/it's only love/a song rings down from above/and then it fades into the dust/and drifts away/it's only love." Completing the journey of the album, it continues to ask rather than answer the question of what gets left behind when the people we love are gone.

Levine and Kwartler were award-winning solo singer-songwriters when they first met at a folk festival in 2009. After reconnecting at an open mic in 2013, Levine began recording in Kwartler's recording studio. The two started sharing gigs and discovered that they were a match both musically and personally. Three albums and nine years later, the pair, who took their name from The Everly Brothers' "When Will I Be Loved," continues to share music and life. Between them, they have been finalists at the Kerrville Folk Festival, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, and the International Songwriting Competition, among others. Kwartler is a respected music producer who owns and runs Hollow Body Recording Studios in Chelmsford, MA.

Listen to the new album here:

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