Photo Credit: Jody Domingue

Lilly Hiatt has mulled things over and taken stock of her life after allowing space between her last album, 2021’s Lately, and her impending project, Forever, due on Jan. 31, 2025, via New West Records. A capsule of growth capturing the realities of adulthood: anxiety, self-criticism, and the unwavering balance of acknowledging self-worth, Hiatt presents the myriad of emotions on her album highlight, single release, “Thoughts.”

Today’s Relix premiere explores the urge to ruminate on one’s emotions and capture those feelings on a page. Like a diary entry, Hiatt harnesses her artistic strengths to unabashed vulnerability–preserving the naturalness of fleeting feelings, both good and bad–the ebb and flow of an ever-changing state of being while becoming accustomed to adulthood. Call it Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain” effect. 

“We were almost done making this record, and I was trying to come up with a few more tunes and get ready to get on the road. I had massive anxieties over things that were not real and knew if I just got behind the wheel and drove, it would all melt away. Also, getting older is trippy…one day you wake up and it’s happening,” Hiatt told Relix. 

Instrumentally, “Thoughts” toes the line between alt-rock tendencies and singer-songwriter sensitivity, preserving space for brazen guitar-driven solos against a backdrop of raw feelings—complementary strengths that make for captivating repeat listens. 

“Thoughts” is a product of Hiatt’s forthcoming LP, Forever, produced by husband Coley Hinson and mixed by Paul Q. Kolderie (Radiohead, Pixies, Hole). Reflecting on the time between LP releases, Hiatt says, “I fell in love, got married, adopted a dog, all the things I’d always dreamed of doing. But I felt like an outsider watching myself stumble through it all, just constantly critiquing myself to the point where I became so paralyzed I could hardly leave home.” 

“There was this intensity where I felt so jacked up all the time,” she explains. “Eventually I just realized that my life was passing me by, that the love I was living in required presence to accept. So I started doing the little things you have to do to show up for the people in your life: listen, grow, change. I learned to expand my world.” 

After leaving Nashville in need of updated scenery, Hiatt and her husband worked to write and record each of its nine pieces, one song at a time. “Paul brought so much enthusiasm and dimension to the project,” Hiatt adds. “Every time we had a song tracked, we’d share it with him and then he’d get really excited about it, which was really affirming and encouraged us to turn right around and get started on the next one.” 

Pre-order Forever now. Listen to “Thoughts” below.