Nashville songwriter Liza Anne's 'Bad Vacation' is worth the trip

Nashville songwriter Liza Anne picked a gnarly time to get sober — and she knows it. 

"OK, of course this is the year," Anne, a 26-year-old musician born Elizabeth Anne Odachowski, told The Tennessean. "Before any of this (expletive) happened, I got sober in November. I was like, 'Man, this is gonna be great. I'm gonna tour and be this sober superhero.' " 

Enter: Six months, possibly longer, with no touring and minimal in-person interaction, the byproduct of a crippling global pandemic that continues to challenge the "normal" that most knew before March. 

For a newly sober singer who pens succinctly honest songs, Anne said that — while living in a season defined by a pandemic and an ongoing push for systemic racial reform — she's found an "internal calm." 

"I'm nose to nose with everything in life, and I'm growing and it's painful, but the reality is I'm present for it and I think that's why I'm finding calm," she said. "I'm going through grief, this collective grief. I'm going through awakening, this collective awakening, but instead of being fuzzy through it, I'm present." 

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And her presence includes releasing a new LP, "Bad Vacation," a collection of tasteful guitar-pop tunes that ooze with genuine you're-not-in-this-alone reminders from a songwriter who goes there. The record drops Friday via Canadian indie label Arts & Crafts. 

Anne co-produced "Bad Vacation" alongside Micah Tawlks and Kyle Ryan in Nashville, with the exception of "Devotion" and "Desire," which Justin Meldal-Johnsen (credits include Beck and Paramore) produced in Los Angeles. 

On the record, Anne fights self-sabotage with power pop convection in "Bummer Days," teeters on a line of over-indulgence with rippling jam "Desire" and welcomes self-aware humor for "I Shouldn't Ghost My Therapist." 

The album deals with emotional chaos and real-world fears but in a way "that help(s) us feel a little bit lighter," she said. 

Or, as "Bummer Days" goes: "I'll stop crying at my party/ I'm tired of feeling sorry." 

"I'm a firm believer that you write what you need before you need it," she said. "I think that 'Bad Vacation,' listening to it in the context of right now, gives it a whole 'nother life. ... People just take it and turn it into their own." 

"Bad Vacation," the title track, anchors the album. It started as a poem that Anne, who grew up in St. Simons Island, a Georgia beach town, said she penned 3½ years ago.

That sweaty, sun-soaked and exhausted feeling someone gets after a few-days-too-long trip out of town? It's not unlike the moments after exiting a toxic relationship, she said. Anne pinpoints the meaning of a "Bad Vacation" by singing lines such as, "I needed sun and a soft breeze/ You were like sand in my ice cream." 

"I could just feel this like hot, sweaty, groggy feeling at the end of a relationship where you're just emotionally exhausted," she said. "It almost feels like being sun tired."

Still, in tackling emotional grogginess with song, Anne found "Bad Vacation" could double as reason to launch a pastel and neon-soaked virtual album campaign. Pre-order an album? That's "early check-in." Need tunes? Head to "Sounds of the Resort."  

Buy a new T-shirt? That's a "souvenir," of course. There's even a "Bad Vacation" hotline — 1-833-BAD-VCTN — where listeners can dial in for faux wake-up calls, exercise advice and room service. 

And, sure, Anne said she wants to look ahead to when she can bring "Bad Vacation" on tour — but her stay this summer remains focused on right now. 

"The last three years of my life, I've spent looking ahead," Anne said. "There's something about this year, we have to be present. As weird as it's been, I'm getting a lot out of this time."