Lilly Hiatt’s “Lately” sounds like a love song, but it comes from the tumult of 2020 and the loneliness, unfamiliarity and distress of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s premiering exclusively via The Boot; press play below to listen.
“”Lately” is all for you,” Hiatt shares. “I’d like to let you in on the strife and hope that came from the last year for me. The song is a dream that can come true, even if that dream changes over time.”
“Lately,” the title track of Hiatt’s next album, is accompanied by a video directed by Dylan Reyes. The bright, colorful clip finds Hiatt performing the song in a variety of settings — some darkened and chaotic, some calming and dreamy. The artist calls the video “a vivid trip.”
“Lately” is one of 10 songs on Hiatt’s forthcoming album of the same name, which is due out on Oct. 15 (the cassette version will be out one week early, on Oct. 8, for Cassette Week). Co-produced by Hiatt with drummer Kate Haldrup, the record follows 2020’s Walking Proof, released in late March of 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was shutting down the live music industry and much of the world. Unable to tour or otherwise be out in front of people promoting her new music, Hiatt leaned into songwriting, and learned to appreciate the slower, quieter way of life.
“I have always felt lonely, but never gone to the depths of solitude that I had in 2020,” Hiatt says. “The irony of that is, I was not alone at all in that space. Everyone had lost something, and we all were trying to rebuild our lives as we knew them …
“Depression was a big part of fall and winter. I forgot how down I could feel,” she adds. “But I also felt hope in that light that came from a memory of a past adventure or a stranger’s smile while walking down the street. Little things lifted my spirits. I missed my friends. I missed my family. I was devastated by the grief our country was facing, as well as the world. I felt unified in knowing that I was not on my own in that mentality … I realized that my heart was full of everything I loved and that would carry me forward for the time being.”
Lately is available to pre-order and pre-save now. Fans can learn more about Hiatt’s late 2021 and early 2022 tour plans, which begin on Sunday (Oct. 3), at LillyHiatt.com.
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