After a controversial name change and a “midlife crisis,” Lady A doubles down on ‘What a Song Can Do’

On Friday, Lady A‘s eighth studio album, What a Song Can Do, arrives, completing the cycle started by June’s seven-song Chapter One.

Recorded “around the same time” as the EP, the seven new tracks were chosen from “up to sixty songs” Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood wrote during the pandemic.

“Obviously, we finished [2019’s] Ocean, we were preparing for that tour, and had to cancel it because of the pandemic,” Dave recalls. “So we just put our heads down and started writing for an indefinite amount of time. We didn’t know how long the pandemic was gonna last, and so we just wrote and wrote and wrote, kind of like we did for our very first album.”

The album’s bouncy lead single, “Like a Lady,” doesn’t begin to hint at the deeper messages on What a Song Can Do, as Charles explains.

“I feel like I had kind of my midlife crisis this past couple years of just, ‘What’s our purpose going through all the stuff we went through?'” he says, “and feeling like some of your intentions got twisted and misinterpreted, obviously, with our name change and all these things.”

“And it was like it only brought us stronger in our conviction of what we want to represent as a band,” he adds.

Charles affirms there’s no doubt what that is, as Hillary agrees.

“Nothing is going to deter us from trying to leave our mark in a positive way,” he proclaims. “[There’s] a little bit more determination — not just survival, and trying to make sure we stay on the radio, making sure we can maintain this certain level of success — but actually going like, ‘What are we leaving behind?'”