Mandy Moore released her second single today titled “I’d Rather Lose,” from her forthcoming new album. The song follows the release of the singer-songwriter’s first new single “When I Wasn’t Watching,” which NPR raved “the song sways with Stevie Nicks energy” and The Atlantic described as “…folkie rock pop, building on a lineage running from Fleetwood Mac to Haim.” Moore’s warm vocals shine through on both new tracks which will appear on her first new album in a decade, due out early next year via Verve Forecast. Click HERE to listen to the single and for audio video, click HERE.
“We live in a cultural moment of “win at all costs” and that may afford small victories in the short term but this song tries to explore the idea of trying to live according to your moral compass, whatever that might be,” says Moore. “It’s easy to run out of patience and give into temptations on any given day, but it seems like the only way of achieving the kind of long term peace of mind we’re all looking for, requires a recommitment to the concepts of honesty and integrity that ground us. On a macro level, that’s what this song aims to hit on – abandoning some game you never subscribed to in the first place.”
Newly signed to Verve Forecast (a label whose roster also includes such esteemed artists as T Bone Burnett and J.S. Ondara), Moore began recording the new album earlier this year. In a purposeful departure from the more tightly structured pop of her previous material, she’s worked closely with long-time collaborator and producer Mike Viola and with her husband, Taylor Goldsmith (singer/guitarist/songwriter for L.A.-based folk-rock band Dawes), creating the album’s lyrics on her own and recording each song live with a full band setup.
As a result of that more organic production approach, songs like “When I Wasn’t Watching” and “I’d Rather Lose,” embody a bright vitality that wholly fulfills Moore’s initial vision for the album. “I wanted to make a very California-sounding record – something that feels sunshiny and airy and natural, something you could listen to driving up and down the PCH with all the windows rolled down on a beautiful weekend day,” she notes.
With her second single out today, Moore looks forward to embarking on the next chapter of her music career with a newfound sense of agency. “I very much feel like I’m at the helm of the ship now, where I’m stepping back into music completely on my own terms,” she says. “Everything that’s happened up until this point has gotten me to where I am today, and I’m so excited to just keep moving forward.”
About Mandy Moore
An Emmy-, Grammy- and Golden Globe-nominated actress, singer, and songwriter, Mandy Moore first came to national attention with her platinum-selling 1999 debut album So Real. With her sophomore effort I Wanna Be with You arriving in 2000 and her self-titled third album released in 2001, she starred in the film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’s A Walk to Remember in 2002, winning an MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female Performance. Over the next decade, Moore appeared in a dozen films and released a series of celebrated albums: 2003’s Coverage, 2007’s Wild Hope, and 2009’s Amanda Leigh. Since 2016, she’s starred on the critically acclaimed NBC series “This Is Us,” earning Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her role as matriarch Rebecca Pearson. With the fourth season of “This Is Us” premiering in late-September 2019, Moore will next be seen alongside Woody Harrelson in Roland Emmerich’s feature film Midway.
*Photo by Lauren Dukoff
