Shelby Lynne Taps Into Muscle Shoals Pop Soul in New Song, ‘Don’t Even Believe in Love’

Shelby Lynne offers a taste of vintage Muscle Shoals pop soul in the sparkling and romantic “Don’t Even Believe in Love,” a cut from her forthcoming self-titled album. A quintessential study in contradictions, Lynne proclaims herself incredulous at the notion of romance even as she finds herself powerless against it. With a warm yet aching vocal at the heart of the track, the singer resigns herself to the idea that there could be something to this whole thing after all.

“When love walks in, there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. You can’t fight it, defy it, or deny it. Love decides,” Lynne says of the track, which follows the recent release of “Here I Am,” a bravura performance showcasing the Grammy-winning powerhouse-vocalist and songwriter at her most starkly raw and vulnerable, built as it is around simple piano accompaniment.

The recording of Shelby Lynne was inspired in part by Lynne’s lead role in the independent film When We Kill the Creators, a collaboration with lyricist-director-screenwriter Cynthia Mort, creator of the HBO series Tell Me You Love Me. In the film, Lynne portrays a deeply conflicted artist who finds herself struggling with the role art plays in commerce and vice versa. More than half of the album’s 11 songs were recorded during the filming of the as-yet-unreleased feature, accentuating the intimate nature of the new music.

Out on Thirty Tigers April 17th, Shelby Lynne is the singer’s first solo LP since 2015’s I Can’t Imagine. In 2017, she teamed with younger sister, Allison Moorer, for the duets record Not Dark Yet.