Joanne Shaw Taylor has released ‘The Girl That You Loved Before’, the latest single from her forthcoming album The Trouble With Love, due on 23 October through Journeyman Records.
The new track finds Taylor looking back on a past relationship with the benefit, and complication, of distance. Rather than focusing on the moment of a break-up, the song asks what happens years later, when two people who once knew each other intimately have become strangers.
There is an easy warmth to the arrangement, but beneath it sits a much less comfortable question about memory, identity and how we continue to exist in the minds of people who once loved us.
“This song came from looking back at past relationships and realising how much we change over time,” says Taylor. “It’s about being remembered for who you were, not necessarily who you are now.”
“I wrote it to explore that nostalgia, that longing, and the bittersweet ache it brings.”
That idea comes sharply into focus with the question at the centre of the song: “Who am I if I’m just a girl you loved before?”
Looking back without standing still
‘The Girl That You Loved Before’ moves with a relaxed pulse, giving Taylor’s vocal room to carry the uncertainty in the lyric before the tension finally breaks through in a fiery guitar solo.
The song is accompanied by a cinematic official video which moves between Taylor performing and solitary scenes in a dimly lit bar. Its sense of isolation fits the song neatly, placing her somewhere between the present and memories that refuse to disappear completely.
It also reveals another side of The Trouble With Love, an album built around different forms and consequences of love rather than one simple romantic narrative.
Produced by Kevin Shirley, the record moves through blues, rock, soul and Americana while looking at attraction, heartbreak, resilience, self-worth and the process of moving forward.
‘The Trouble With Love’ takes shape
Several songs from the album have already offered glimpses of that wider emotional range.
The title track, featuring Joe Bonamassa, examines the intoxicating push and pull of romance, while ‘What Good Is My Love?’ pairs Taylor with Orianthi and focuses on the pain of feelings that are not returned.
Elsewhere, ‘Hell Or High Water’ takes a more defiant blues-gospel approach, ‘This Is Who I Am’ deals with acceptance and self-worth, and ‘Tired Of Being Right’ considers the point where walking away becomes more important than winning an argument.
‘Bad Boy’ explores the appeal and damage of a volatile relationship.
With ‘The Girl That You Loved Before’, Taylor turns her attention to what is left afterwards. Not the relationship itself, but the memories, questions and earlier versions of ourselves that remain part of somebody else’s story.
A busy year on the road
Taylor continues her US touring schedule through September before the release of The Trouble With Love on 23 October.
A larger autumn tour begins in Albuquerque on 28 October and travels through Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California.
Bywater Call will join Taylor for selected dates during the first part of the run, with Robert Jon & The Wreck appearing on later shows.
The Trouble With Love will be released on 23 October 2026 through Journeyman Records. ‘The Girl That You Loved Before’ is available now on all major digital platforms.
For more info and to purchase tickets, visit http://joanneshawtaylor.com/tour.
