I like what Ella Langley has said about dandelions — they’re considered weeds but they’re also resilient, colorful, homey and they don’t have thorns. And while making her new album, Dandelion, she found out that dandelion tea is considered a liver detox. That made it a good name for the album that follows her last, still hungover.
In one interview she says, “The context was like, I’m growing and I’m not just doing debauchery every day of my life — maybe just on Tuesdays.”
Ella has a central role in the story of Mary and Warren. When Mary was trying to figure out how to get my attention, Ella’s song “You Look Like You Love Me” came on. It’s the story of a girl who walks up brazenly to a young buck and presents herself as someone he ought to take home.
At the end of the song, she advises her fellow girls, “If you ever see a man in a cowboy hat and you think to yourself, ‘I could use some of that,’ don’t waste your time …” And while it was not as brazen an approach as Ella’s, Mary presented herself to me with a very lovely hug.
I used to be very tied into what was happening in the Top 40 and Hot 100. I’d keep track of things like “McArthur Park” being a huge hit that peaked at #2, or the injustice of “Good Vibrations” never climbing higher than #4 despite being the greatest recording of all time. But I don’t pay much attention anymore, and so I was surprised to learn that Ella’s “Choosing Texas” was the No. 1 song for five weeks earlier this year — the No. 1 song, not just the No. 1 country song. It IS an awfully catchy tune with a bittersweet story.
And no one does bittersweet these days like Ella Langley. For example, she has an infectious love song called “Never Met Anyone Like You” that would probably be a massive wedding song except for the bridge, where she sings, “You said it was us to the end, then you went and hooked up with my friend.” She knows how to put an ache in her voice that can break your heart in a Nashville minute.
Which brings us to Dandelion, the album. It’s almost a full hour of personal, honest songs about love and heartbreak and being human and, my goodness, it is something to hear.
“I’m in the back half of my twenties and still figuring it out, but I feel like I do it with a little more confidence,” she says in the liner notes on Apple Music. “That’s why a lot of these songs represent that. They represent that feeling of, like, you know, you’re still figuring it out, but you’re trying to do it a little bit better each time.”
She did it a whole lot better this time. It’s great watching someone with whom you’ve made a personal connection turn into a star, and I hope and pray she continues to soar like this for a long time. Dandelion is available now in all the usual places.
