Lady A - "Love You Back"

[recordyear]

Artist: Lady A
Single: Love You Back
Album: TBA
Label: Big Machine Records
Impact Date: December 11th, 2023 (Country Aircheck weekly)
Writers: Emily Weisband, James McNair, Lindsay Rimes

Received 4 adds and 5 total historic adds this week.

[Ernesto]

I heard this one yesterday and I quite like it.

[recordyear]

Debut at #59 on Billboard's Country Airplay chart this week.

[.indulgecountry]

Very promising to see this crack the chart already several weeks before it even goes for adds.

[Kanenrá:ke]

Especially considering their last single didn’t chart

[zdm1998]

Ngl I kind of already wrote this off as a DOA, even though I enjoy it, because of the fazing out of the 2000s artists, especially the performance of their last single, but this gives me some hope. Would love to see Lady A get a few more top 10/20 hits if possible.

[raylatch98]

Most added song this week with 82 adds and if my math is correct that would mean 101 total stations by add week. Very amazing start I will say. I don't love this song (I like it) but this absolutely sounds like a huge hit and I am so excited to see how this does in the new year. 

[jab820]

I'm pretty surprised by this add date as I didn't realize radio was clamoring for a new Lady A single. Great for them, I always like having them on the radio, but this seems like the most interest in a single they've had since clear back to "Champagne Night" (which had the Songland boost).

[.indulgecountry]

Thrilled to see lots of upfront interest in this one from country radio because it was beginning to look like it was up in the air as to whether Lady A would have any more hits left in them or if radio would just phase them out. It's a great song and has only grown on me more and more with repeated listens. Definitely a song that is squarely in their wheelhouse of what they do best (reminds me of "What If I Never Get Over You" stylistically). Looking forward to seeing it do well for them and excited for their next album project.

[someguy]

Add me to the list of people surprised. I like the song a fair bit actually, but I really thought that Lady A were being phased out by radio. It's nice to see them taking off in a big way like this. The song also moves 57-51* in week three on the Billboard airplay chart.

[countryfan43]

I really enjoy this and I’m pleasantly surprised to see it doing well. I don’t really enjoy any of Lady A’s early material but the past few years everything they put out has sounded great to me. Hopefully this keeps them around and puts their name back into the award shows.

[raylatch98]

This song's good fortunes keep coming as this appeared on the Monday Morning Intel callout scores and this ranked #24, which for a song that is barely in the Top 50 on country radio is a really good sign for this song. Also moved up to #48 on Mediabase last night. 

[gcizvolsfan]

What a great song! I hope it does good for them.

[jab820]

Lady A is one of those groups that, despite being around for so long, continue to sound fresh even when they release songs like this that play on their older sounds. With the right releases and promo, they may be able to continue another string of hits. I was worried there for a moment but this song's reception (and how good it is) is really promising for them.

[zdm1998]

I feel like they were able to get back in the right direction with their musical style when they signed with Big Machine. I've enjoyed almost all their material since their label move.

[raylatch98]

I do think their single choices have been really hit and miss though since signing on Big Machine, as I still maintain "What A Song Can Do" wasn't a great single choice even before the swapping of singles, "What I'm Leaving For" was probably not gonna do much beyond the teens, and "Like A Lady" was at best a mediocre lead single choice. 

[.indulgecountry]

Jan 13, 2024 14:12:54 GMT -5 raylatch98 said:

I do think their single choices have been really hit and miss though since signing on Big Machine, as I still maintain "What A Song Can Do" wasn't a great single choice even before the swapping of singles, "What I'm Leaving For" was probably not gonna do much beyond the teens, and "Like A Lady" was at best a mediocre lead single choice. 

Eh that wasn't a BMLG problem though, as they had odd single choices plaguing their career prior to that. "Goodbye Town," "Freestyle," and "You Look Good" were all messy picks at the time they were on Capitol.

[raylatch98]

Jan 13, 2024 20:42:35 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Jan 13, 2024 14:12:54 GMT -5 raylatch98 said:

I do think their single choices have been really hit and miss though since signing on Big Machine, as I still maintain "What A Song Can Do" wasn't a great single choice even before the swapping of singles, "What I'm Leaving For" was probably not gonna do much beyond the teens, and "Like A Lady" was at best a mediocre lead single choice. 

Eh that wasn't a BMLG problem though, as they had odd single choices plaguing their career prior to that. "Goodbye Town," "Freestyle," and "You Look Good" were all messy picks at the time they were on Capitol.

Eh I don't personally think "You Look Good" was a bad choice and I feel like some of the single choices on Big Machine like "What A Song Can Do" were worse single choices than when they were on UMG imo.

[.indulgecountry]

Jan 13, 2024 20:59:31 GMT -5 raylatch98 said:

Jan 13, 2024 20:42:35 GMT -5 .indulgecountry said:

Eh that wasn't a BMLG problem though, as they had odd single choices plaguing their career prior to that. "Goodbye Town," "Freestyle," and "You Look Good" were all messy picks at the time they were on Capitol.

Eh I don't personally think "You Look Good" was a bad choice and I feel like some of the single choices on Big Machine like "What A Song Can Do" were worse single choices than when they were on UMG imo.

Eh go back and read the Pulse thread for "You Look Good" and also the chart stats don't lie. It was by far their worst-performing lead single up to that point and very polarizing. It limped to the top 5 despite that and then the follow-up was more radio-friendly and palatable ("Heart Break") but their momentum was slashed so the best it could do was scrape the top 15. They were looking like they were in danger of being phased out by country radio, and then switching to BMLG they got their biggest smash hit in 5 years and put them back on track. Yes, "What a Song Can Do" flopped unfortunately but "Like a Lady" was a total whiff as a lead single and left them with 0 momentum. But the point is just that Lady A has had questionable single picks for years. Kinda like Tim McGraw: he's had them across at least 3 different labels now, lol. 🤷

[vann]

This song brought me back a bit of old Lady A and they were really excited about this one.I hope it keeps climbing on the charts.

[.indulgecountry]

This one's chart run has just been so odd. It debuted early ahead of its adds date, and then it pulled in around 100 adds right off the bat, but then like a month into its run, it's just been floundering since. Frustrating. Still hopeful this one can make a turnaround because obviously Lady A doesn't have great momentum, so a quick chart run was never likely, but the start seemed so promising for it to be leveling out so bad.

[g8erboi]

I really hope this doesn't get lost in the shuffle. This and "What If I Never Get Over You" are their best songs since their prime and I would be kind of devastated if this doesn’t get heard by the masses. This seems like a song that would start connecting late into its chart run a la "Outskirts" so I’m really holding out hope here.