Since 2016, Mandy Moore has held it down as an emotional anchor on award-winning NBC crier This Is Us. She’s long been an actress — her roles as Tangled’s Rapunzel and in early-2000s teen dramas like A Walk to Remember mean a lot to a lot of people. But she’s been a singer-songwriter for even longer, though her music career has been on pause for a decade.
On Tuesday (January 14), though, Moore picked up the microphone once again to share “Save a Little for Yourself,” a savvy slice of rootsy pop-rock that leads off an upcoming new album. That’s right: Mandy Moore’s first album in 11 years, Silver Landings, will be out March 6.
Silver Landings will be Moore’s first album since 2009’s Amanda Leigh. She also dropped the song’s video, which finds Moore leading a band — one that includes her husband, Dawes’s Taylor Goldsmith, on guitar — as she sings about perseverance: “When someone takes the best of you / Don’t let them take the rest of you.”
In a statement, Moore called the tune “sort of the other half of a love song that we don’t always talk about or acknowledge. Sure, we should open ourselves up, let people in and love them as wholly as possible but none of that carries any water if we’re not taking care of ourselves first and foremost. It might not be as romantic, but it’s an equally important part of the equation.”
“Save a Little for Yourself” is the third Moore track in the past five months after the aching “When I Wasn’t Watching” and the soulful “I’d Rather Lose.” All three are set to appear on Silver Landings. Moore is also taking her new music on the road this year, from March through May, alongside Bedouine and Madison Cunningham.
In February 2019, Moore spoke out against her “psychologically abusive” ex-husband Ryan Adams in a New York Times piece, along with several women (including musician Phoebe Bridgers) who described Adams’s abuse, manipulation, and sexual misconduct. “His controlling behavior essentially did block my ability to make new connections in the industry during a very pivotal and potentially lucrative time — my entire mid-to-late 20s,” Moore said.
She elaborated on the elation she feels now, being able to make music, in an Instagram post announcing the album. “It feels so good to be stepping assuredly into this next chapter of my life as a woman and performer, with an album of songs I couldn’t be more thrilled with or ready to share,” Moore wrote. “Having music back in my life makes me feel like a more complete version of myself, in ways I wasn’t even expecting.”
Check out “Save a Little for Yourself” above, then dig into her infectious 2003 take on XTC’s “Senses Working Overtime,” which appeared on her all-covers album, Coverage. It’s killer.
Mandy Moore’s First New Album Since 2009 Is Out Soon, And She’s So Ready
