• News

• All

Jun 08, 2022 By Caleb Campbell Photography by James Paul Mitchell

Later this summer, folk pop singer/songwriter Lauren Balthrop is set to share her forthcoming sophomore record, Things Will Be Different, arriving August 12th via Olivia Records. The record is the follow-up to Balthrop’s 2018 solo debut, This Time Around, and is envisioned as a cathartic and confessional reflection on nostalgia. The record interrogates how we remember the past, how we can get lost there, and the hard work of moving forward.

As Balthrop explains, “This is the first record that feels entirely, fully my own. It’s about anxiety and heartbreak, and the millions of little moments that make up both. It’s about being stuck in the present but fixated on the past… and moving through to the other side.”

Balthrop announced the album earlier this year with her lead single “Piece of Shit,” and today she’s back with another new track, “Thank You,” along with an accompanying video, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Thank You” is a softly sung reflection on grief and healing, exploring the slow process of moving past a painful relationship. Balthrop’s feelings lie between love in hate, in that complicated place where longing, anger, pain, and hope all coincide. Amidst gentle acoustic guitar, mournful pedal steel, and crystalline keys, Balthrop and fellow singer/songwriter Maya de Vitry exorcise these complicated feelings. Their confessionals don’t quite reach peace or forgiveness but together they take one step closer: “Someday I’m sorry / Someday I’ll forgive you / And someday I’ll thank you / When I’m ready to.”

Balthrop explains of the song, “I co-wrote this song one December morning in 2019 (the before times) with Maya de Vitry. When she got to my house, I started telling her about this deeply painful day the previous week during Thanksgiving. Without going into too much detail, that day brought closure to a relationship that was incredibly hard to leave behind. I had pinned a lot of hopes and dreams on that relationship. She had gone through something similar and then what felt like a therapy session turned into this song about different stages of grief around past relationships.

She says of the accompanying video, “The video for ‘Thank You’ was filmed in France on the same day we shot the photos for the album cover. The video is essentially the album cover and concept come to life. In the video, I’m sitting across from what I picture as my past and future self. As I’ve lived with the songs from Things Will Be Different and especially ‘Thank You’, they have come to feel like conversations with myself. I’ve learned to let go of my disappointments, of the things that didn’t work out the way I hoped. I’ve learned to let go of the expectations I have for myself and my life and ultimately I’ve learned to embrace the present and let myself feel it all, from grief to gratitude. It wasn’t easy. ‘Thank You’ feels like that journey from disappointment to acceptance.

Check out the song and video below, along with Balthrop’s upcoming tour dates. Things Will Be Different is out August 12th via Olivia Records.

TOUR DATES

Aug 24 - Egremont, MA - Egremont Barn #

Aug 25 - Boston, MA - Club Passim #

Aug 26 - Easthampton, MA - Marigold Theater #

Aug 27 - New York, NY - Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2 $

Aug 28 - Cambridge, NY - The Depot at Argyle Brewing Co #

Sep 07 - Nashville, TN - Analog at the Hutton

Sep 09 - Louisville, KY - The Whirling Tiger

Sep 23-9/25 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Americana Music Fest

# w/ Violet Bell

$ w/Violet Bell and Elizabeth & the Catapult