Lily Meola – Heartbreak Rodeo
There’s something wild about Americana greatness coming from someone born outside the continental US, but Hawaii-born Lily Meola is busy putting out perfectly twangy pop. Her latest offering, the five-song Heartbreak Rodeo, is obviously Americana-inspired, but also flirts with country and pure-pop flavors, running the gamut between saloon-inspired balladry to straight-up hook factory pop songs.
Lily was smart to kick Heartbreak Radio off with the most overtly catchy song on the EP, “Cowboy.” An indie-pop acoustic guitar progression bounces into your eardrums while a subtle shaker chicka-chickas in the background. The intro of the song is pretty enough, but around the thirty second mark, Meola unleashes an insane vocal run – it’s ruthlessly catchy and acts as a motif through the rest of the song. There aren’t many cowboys in Buffalo, NY (well, maybe in the suburbs), but it’s not hard to imagine “Cowboy” appealing to the Swifties of the world, especially those who loved her pre-pop output… But “Cowboy” also has a timeless appeal (I can’t help but think of Madonna’s “Don’t Tell Me” in this scenario), and it doesn’t feel manufactured like Taylor tunes often do… And while there’s a hint of country here, Meola was smart to include some evergreen pop on this particular EP. The lyrics of “Cowboy” are the most countrified thing about it, but our bet is that listeners who feel cool bumping Orville Peck are going to listen to Lily and still feel hip. There’s just some downright excellent songwriting at play here, and for that reason, “Cowboy” definitely gets our vote for album favorite – this one is a bona fide hit.
Song two, “Gasoline,” has a bit more of a bare-bones approach. With laser-focused lyrics referencing “hearts running on gasoline,” “making it out of California,” and “long roads,” Lily has locked onto those country-light lyrics that seem to appeal so strongly to red-blooded Americans. At a brief 2:34 in length, the beautiful harmonies and shuffling beat of “Gasoline” is over before you know it, but that’s all it really needs to get its point across.
Rumor has it that one of the first people to champion Meola’s burgeoning career was none other than Willie Nelson – our guess is he’d be most proud of the dusty thump found on “Mar Vista.” The sun-kissed slide guitar and walking bassline here conjures images of a dive bar in New Mexico, or maybe a trip down Route 66 with the top down. Lily already proved she knows her way around a pop melody, but she can also lay on the twang with the best of them.
Of the five songs included here, title-track “Heartbreak Rodeo” gets the closest to modern country radio – there’s no doubting the commercial appeal that can be squeezed out of its down-home bass drum stomp and lovelorn lyrical content. But Lily’s album closer, “I Need You,” has wedding song written all over it. Move over Lonestar, “Amazed” is great and all, but Lily isn’t messing around with these lyrics:
“I could spend 100 years with you, it still won’t be enough
If these walls of ours could talk
They’d tell the good, the bad, the happy sad
The things that make us us
It doesn’t matter where we’re going
I need you
Like the planets need the space
I need you
Like the ocean needs the waves
Like a cowboy needs a horse to ride
And birds need songs to sing
Oh it’s true, I need you.”
Heartbreak Rodeo is out now – check it out via the YouTube embed below, or, on your preferred streaming service including Spotify and Apple Music.
Categorised in: Album Reviews
This post was written by Nick Sessanna