Joanne Shaw Taylor has released her new studio album The Trouble With Love through Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records, alongside new single ‘Never Gonna Please ’Em All’.
Produced by longtime collaborator Kevin Shirley, the ten-track album finds Shaw Taylor looking at love and relationships from a number of different angles, moving between heartbreak, desire, friendship, frustration and self-acceptance. Musically, the record blends blues, rock, soul and Americana while keeping her guitar playing and increasingly personal songwriting at its centre.
The album also features collaborations with Joe Bonamassa and Orianthi, while ‘Never Gonna Please ’Em All’ turns the focus inward with a defiant response to the expectations placed on women and the realisation that trying to satisfy everyone can come at the expense of being yourself.
Refusing to please everyone
‘Never Gonna Please ’Em All’ tackles the contradictions and demands Shaw Taylor has encountered throughout her life and career, from being expected to smile more or speak less to the wider pressure to become smaller, quieter or more agreeable.
Rather than accepting those expectations, the song celebrates the freedom that comes with recognising that some people simply cannot be pleased. The lyric “I turned my heartbreak into a work of art” also reflects Shaw Taylor’s own approach to songwriting, where difficult personal experiences have repeatedly become material for her music.
That defiance sits comfortably alongside the broader themes of The Trouble With Love. Across the album, Shaw Taylor examines relationships without presenting them as simple or easily resolved, allowing love to be exciting, damaging, reassuring and confusing, often within the same record.
Love from every angle
The title track, featuring Joe Bonamassa, explores the addictive highs and lows of romance, while ‘What Good Is My Love?’ brings Shaw Taylor together with Orianthi for a song about loving someone who cannot return that affection.
Elsewhere, ‘Hell Or High Water’ turns towards perseverance and self-belief, while ‘Tired Of Being Right’ looks at the difficult realisation that someone you love may never change. ‘Bad Boy’ explores the attraction of relationships that are both exciting and destructive, and ‘The Girl That You Loved Before’ considers what happens when somebody remembers a version of you that no longer exists.
One of the record’s most personal moments arrives with ‘You And Me (Rachel’s Song)’, written as a tribute to Shaw Taylor’s best friend. By placing friendship alongside romantic relationships, the song broadens the album’s central theme and recognises the importance of the people who remain constants through different stages of life.
A new chapter
Across The Trouble With Love, Shaw Taylor’s guitar playing remains instantly recognisable, but the songs themselves increasingly take the lead. Shirley’s production gives each track room to develop its own character, creating a record that moves between vulnerability and defiance without losing the blues-rock foundation that first established her reputation.
Discovered by Dave Stewart while still a teenager, Shaw Taylor has spent nearly two decades developing from a highly regarded guitarist into a songwriter, singer and performer with an increasingly broad musical identity. Her catalogue now includes several Billboard Blues Albums chart-toppers, while recent records have continued to bring soul, rock and more personal writing into her sound.
Shaw Taylor will take the new material on the road in the United States this autumn before returning to the UK for an eight-date tour in May 2027.
And there is plenty more Joanne Shaw Taylor coming in Blues Matters. Look out for our full review of The Trouble With Love and an in-depth interview with Joanne in the November issue.
Cover photo by Alysse Gafkjen
