What A Song Can Do

Following the success of their 2019 album *Ocean*, Lady A is back with a two-volume project that seeks to return to the superstar trio’s musical roots while also expanding upon them. Lady A tapped *Ocean* producer Dann Huff to helm the project, which, as with the trio’s best work, finds the intersection between contemporary country, soft rock, and melodic pop. Lead single “Like a Lady” recalls the soulful pop of earlier Lady A hits like 2013’s “Downtown” with a heavy dose of harmony vocals reminiscent of 2017’s “You Look Good.” “Friends Don’t Let Friends” calls upon the trio’s real-life buddies Thomas Rhett, Darius Rucker, and Carly Pearce for a rowdy collaboration sure to light up the band’s live performances. And Dave Haywood makes his debut as a vocalist on “Workin’ on This Love,” an emotional song he originally wrote as a gift for his wife. Thirteen out of the double album’s 14 tracks feature a writing credit from at least one Lady A member, with co-writers including Thomas Rhett, Ryan Hurd, and Natalie Hemby. *What a Song Can Do* is the group’s first release since changing their name from Lady Antebellum to Lady A in 2020. Below, the band walks Apple Music through several key tracks on What a Song Can Do. **“Worship What I Hate”** Hillary Scott: “It’s just an opportunity to just be really honest about what I think a lot of men and women—but especially women—feel, whether it be through a relationship with social media or just by comparing yourself to someone else. And instead of focusing on the things that we have, to be just celebrating within ourselves and celebrating the fact that even acknowledging that it\'s something that you want to work on is a win. And that\'s the first step. And I think with that song, what I hope people hear in it is hope. By the end of it, I\'m recognizing this, and now it\'s what I do with that. It was cathartic for me to show that in this lyric and in this melody.” **“Where Would I Be”** Charles Kelley: “I feel like that one has a very quintessential Lady A sound to it. And that was the only track off this project that we didn\'t write; I got sent that. I hear it as obviously a relationship thing: ‘Where would I be without your love?’ to a spouse or a partner, but it also is ‘Where would I be if I wasn\'t in that bar that day when Hillary walked up and had heard my music on Myspace? Where would I be if Dave hadn’t moved to Nashville?’ Because I think about it a lot. I probably, after a few years of struggling, would have just said, ‘Screw it. I\'m going back home, packing my bags up and giving this dream up.’ So there\'s a lot of parallels, too, with that song.” **“Friends Don’t Let Friends” (feat. Carly Pearce, Thomas Rhett & Darius Rucker)** Dave Haywood: “These are all really good friends of ours, genuinely. We wanted to make sure it felt real and authentic. These are all friends that we hang out with when we\'re back at home or before and after events in Nashville or award shows. So that made it a fun party.” **“You Keep Thinking That”** HS: “When we heard the demo, Charles was singing lead on it, and as we were living with it, we loved it. We thought it was such a great groove that could take us in a direction, even production-wise, maybe that we hadn\'t really dabbled in before. But the more we listened to it, we were like, ‘I wonder how it would sound with a female singing it.’ I think it opened up some doors, production-wise, even with effects on my vocal that we\'d never really experimented with before.” **“Workin’ on This Love”** DH: “First time around for me singing lead vocals in our career, which was fun. It started as just a song I wrote for my wife for Mother\'s Day this year. I actually didn\'t buy her a gift. I just wrote her a song. And I\'ve always wanted to do that for her. The idea came to me of, just every day, it takes work, it takes effort. You have to roll your sleeves up, you have to commit to it. And for people that have been fans of us, I think, since the early days and understand us as a trio and our different personalities and what we all bring to the table and who we are, I just thought, ‘Man, it might be a neat, a different character or a different flavor for fans to hear from me on one.’” **“Swore I Was Leaving”** DH: “It\'s probably one of the most traditional songs we\'ve ever had. When I look at our career and the style of music we have, this is something you\'d hear on the Opry stage every night—this kind of traditional classic country-sounding chord progression. To me, it feels like a classic ’70s, ’60s country song.”

"What a Song Can Do," the title track of Lady A's ninth album, is a testament to the power of music, how it can function, among other things, like a time machine, therapy, affirmation, or seduction.