Lydia Luce Announces Spellbinding New Album ‘Florida Girl’ (10/27); Releases Hypnotic New Single “Other Side”

Nashville based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lydia Luce today announces the release of Florida Girl, her spellbinding third studio album, released via Nettwerk on October 27. Produced by longtime friends and bandmates Aaron Steele and Anthony Da Costa, Florida Girl is a luminous body of work offering an in-depth examination of Luce’s inner life through her instantly potent impressionistic songwriting.

Alongside the album release, Luce will perform at Third Man Records’ Nashville venue, The Blue Room on November 4 in celebration of the release of Florida Girl.

Luce also releases her latest single, “Other Side.” Its pounding drumbeats and fierce guitar riffs converge for an explosive track which, rather than glum, is uplifting in its ruminations on the concept of the afterlife.

“My friend Raymond Joseph texted me during the pandemic and said, ‘Do you want to write a song about death?’” Luce recalled, adding, “This song is us pondering the afterlife. Will we be reincarnated? Will our souls just float off into the abyss? Growing up, I believed if you’re good you go to heaven and if you’re bad you go to hell. I no longer believe in heaven and hell and have come to a place where I’m ok with not knowing what happens after I die. I’m just trying to stay present while I’m here.”

Exploring life after death is the kind of bold swing Luce takes without pause on Flordia Girl, a collection of modern pop painted with sophisticated ambient and vintage textures. A shapeshifting soundscape of moody guitar tones, resplendent piano melodies, echoing tape loop and gossamer strings all blending to create an elegant array of soft-rock, chill wave, psychedelic indie folk, and electronica. Luce’s compelling yet calming vocals hypnotize with mantras of self-acceptance, and making peace, even with her home state, Florida.

“I grew up in South Florida and have always hated telling people that. The ‘Florida man’ headlines, politics and negativity that comes with talking about Florida. Naming the record Florida Girl is my acceptance of where I’m from.”

Luce, who has already attracted the attention of tastemakers FLOOD, Under The Radar, PASTE and many more, grew up in a strict musical household where her mother was a professional conductor and did not present learning the violin as a choice. After graduating from Berklee College of Music, she briefly worked at world-music label Smithsonian Folkways Records, before relocating to Nashville and establishing herself as an in-demand session musician playing viola and violin for country legends like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and hip hop superstar Eminem. Luce leads Lockeland Strings, a community arts organization and showcase of local artists (which included country superstar Kacey Musgraves) accompanied by string quartet arrangements, alongside performances of new contemporary classical pieces from local composers.

“Never Enough” opens the album on a note of elegant psychedelia, one of many unexpected music moments on Florida Girl. Threaded with ambient and unearthly interludes (including several pieces featuring the brightly bubbling sounds Luce captured while scuba diving), album track ”Saline” is a joyfully frenetic statement of devotion, the lush and haunting “Your Garden” (watch live performance here), the raw but radiant “Face and Figure,” and hypnotic title track, show Luce has reached a pinnacle, offering her most intuitively realized and most imaginatively composed work to date.

Florida Girl offers tales of appreciation of the beautiful world we inhabit and dedication towards tending to the garden of relationships, whether it is learning to navigate turbulence in friendship, marriage or her shifting sense of self. Radiant meditations share her journey toward true self-love, overcoming issues with alcohol and body dysmorphia that are personal yet will inspire us to listen to the voice deep within that knows the way.

“The record is about true acceptance. Acceptance of my present self and my past self, of life and death, of my emotions both the good and bad. My 30s so far have come with a ton of reflection. There were so many things I avoided in my 20’s, and I did that through abusing drugs and alcohol and with eating disorders. I no longer want to numb anything away. Instead, I want to put in the work, even when it is uncomfortable and be where I’m at.

“I hope the album helps people along in their own healing journeys and reminds them that they’re not alone. I want to keep creating that safe space where we’re all free to talk about everything.” Luce states.