LUCINDA WILLIAMS – WEST (2007)Lucinda Williams was born confronting demons, and her emotionally charged prose has been haunting listeners for 28 years with the type of gritty honesty few in her field could possibly replicate. Her ravaged, heartfelt musings are often far from comforting, and one could argue that the biting lyrics draw more similarities to the Blues than her gentle Alt. Country soundscapes. At 54, life’s turmoil’s have fueled her first release since 2003’s “World Without Tears”. The death of her mother, and the break up of a long standing relationship form the subject matter for much of the embittered penmanship on “West”, and her wistful, lived in voice tackles each track with a mixture of defiance, anger and sad resignation. For most of the record, the pain and emotional fragility of her songs works extremely well, and the highlights genuinely compete with anything from the magnificent “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road”. That said, there’s only so much overwrought self referential sorrow one can fully digest in one sitting, and at 69 minutes, the hurt she’s portraying becomes tiresome. Producer Hal Willner, should have suggested that the quality control department cut 3 weak songs and about 20 minutes in order to make the “classic, the album often aspires to. The biggest culprit and least memorable moment is the nine minute monotone rant “Wrap My Head Around That”, which pours a liberal label of scorn on high art, and rambles on with what seems like minimal musical objective. The sparse, bluesy “Fancy Funeral” seems too wrapped up in the dour iconography one would associate with Williams, and the lyrics feel less vivid than much of her previous work. One understands the lyrical message she’s trying to achieve on “What If?” via the closing line, but the point could have been made in a lot less than 5M.41S, and really didn’t need to include banalities such as "If dogs became kings, and the Pope chewed gum, and hobos had wings, and God was a bum".The supporting cast works superbly, and deserves special credit for realizing the album’s high points. Producer Willner, has an ability to arrange with an imperious degree of subtlety, from raising the ante when Williams is at her most urgent (“Come On”), to quietly shadowing her raw rasp on the more introspective moments (“Unsuffer Me”). The guitar work of both Bill Frisell and Doug Pettibone intertwines with Williams’ acoustic perfectly, deliberately crafted to fully expose the strength of the songs and develop a musical theme to match the lyrics. This is more than prevalent on the desperately sad “Learning How To Live”, as Williams laments the loss of her love to an accompaniment that matches the words and vocal with an un-erring, lonely accuracy. The descending strings add a soulful atmosphere to the superb “Unsuffer Me”, as Lucinda coaxes her lover to “Come in to my world, of loneliness, and wickedness, and bitterness, unlock my love”. Those lines couldn’t be more applicable in context to the pick of the album, the soaring culmination of an anger that rages with unrestrained vitriol on the epic “Come On”. Williams’ animation is at its most aurally visual as she spits “You think you're in hot demand, but you don't know where to put your hand, let me tell you where you stand, you didn't even make me come on”.As a continuation of an outstanding career, “West” has all the rare passion and articulacy of previous recordings, added with Williams’ unique vocal style and consistent instrumental delivery. It’s flawed by a couple of mis-fires, but there are still enough significantly powerful statements to overcome any reservations.7/10
Augusts1 says
Lucinda's always good for some excellent heartbreak & life disappointment songs. She's not much to watch live from what I've seen but she always SOUNDS great which is most important. This cd has received alot of acclaim but I haven't heard the whole thing yet. The cds I've heard of hers always seem to have a few less than stellar songs on them while the majority are great. With that being said, I'm not a huge fan since her music tends to be mellower than I like. The song to the vid I've heard before but don't particularly care for since it's really repetitive. I do like "Come On' since it's a little rockier(which she needs to do more). "Unsuffer Me" is pretty good too.
mktackabery says
Nice write-up Jeff, but I think the criticism of Lucinda is a little bit harsh. She has always been an outsider artist with very little polish to her lyrics; Willner dressed her up quite a bit as it is, but I think any more "quality control" would have been unfair. At her core, Lucinda is just down-home. I can agree with your statement on an intellectual level, but in the gut, where Lucinda lives, I think it's basically crap to expect a polished pearl of art from her - it would go against the grain of who she is. Just my $0.02 though.
Jammy Jeff says
August - Thanks for the comment. The two songs I uploaded are the one's I really wanted everyone to hear, because in my opinion they represent the strengths of the album. I'm glad you liked them.
Jammy Jeff says
Michelle - Thanks too for your comment, and of course I'm glad you put your 2 cents worth in the pot. I knew I'd get a bit of a backlash from those that love Lucinda, and I think my over riding point about the new album is wrapped up in the final paragraph, particularly "It’s flawed by a couple of mis-fires, but there are still enough significantly powerful statements to overcome any reservations."
I've lived with this album since last Tuesday, playing it everyday at least once until today, and I would never ever doubt her un polished vocal performance, or the honest delivery of the songs. I just feel that there is at least two songs that aren't of the significant quality she usually aspires to. I tried hard not to compare it to 'Car Wheels', like every other reviewer does, but at 50 minutes it said everything it needed to say and remains a masterpiece. This album is 70 minutes long, and isn't a masterpiece because it's got a few songs that, in my opinion aren't up to standard. I'd love to give it 9 or 10/10 but I stand by my rating of 7/10.
Wade says
Jeff, your review is positively mild compared to the whipping West got from Pitchfork: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/41224-west. Usually when pitchfork skewers an album this much, I go out and get it, especially if it is by an artist I really like, but I was pretty disappointed with World Without Tears (loved Essence and obviously, Car Wheels).
Lady Miss Ian says
Nice review Jeff. I've been meaning to check this album out. I love Lucinda's voice, but I know what you mean about kind of hitting the limit on overwrought sorrow. Reminds me of a Handsome Family song that says something about "There's only so much wine you can drink in this life, but it's never enough to save you from the bottom of your glass."
Unsuffer Me is desperate and beautiful and sad. And that lyric you posted:
“You think you’re in hot demand, but you don’t know where to put your hand"
Whoa! Fantastic.
I'm with you on the judicious editing. Just because you can put 20+ cuts on a CD doesn't mean you should. Sometimes you gots ta kill yr babies for the good of the whole.
Wade -- you're right. Pitchfork was very, uh..pointed in their review. A couple other industry wonk chat boards were really split into love and hate camps over this album.
Jammy Jeff says
Wade,
Thanks for the link...ouch! That obviously means that I like the album 100% more than Pitchfork.
Question is, what the heck are they doing reviewing LW ? Why don't they just carry on supporting left field indie bands who no-one's heard of ?
Jammy Jeff says
Lady Miss Ian,
That's a great Handsome Family quote, thanks for that. I sometimes wonder why there isn't the quality filter on many contemporary albums because Lucinda isn't the only guilty party by any means.
For example, I was listening to "Stadium Arcadium" over the weekend and in my opinion that definitely needs to be shed of some of the chaff.
Anonymous says
Wow...i've never heard of her before ...but the anger in her voice just rips right through you....i kinda jumped in my seat right now..... i can picture this song in a movie right after a heart break though.....
LUCINDA WILLIAMS – WEST (2007)Lucinda Williams was born confronting demons, and her emotionally charged prose has been haunting listeners for 28 years with the type of gritty honesty few in her field could possibly replicate. Her ravaged, heartfelt musings are often far from comforting, and one could argue that the biting lyrics draw more similarities to the Blues than her gentle Alt. Country soundscapes. At 54, life’s turmoil’s have fueled her first release since 2003’s “World Without Tears”. The death of her mother, and the break up of a long standing relationship form the subject matter for much of the embittered penmanship on “West”, and her wistful, lived in voice tackles each track with a mixture of defiance, anger and sad resignation. For most of the record, the pain and emotional fragility of her songs works extremely well, and the highlights genuinely compete with anything from the magnificent “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road”. That said, there’s only so much overwrought self referential sorrow one can fully digest in one sitting, and at 69 minutes, the hurt she’s portraying becomes tiresome. Producer Hal Willner, should have suggested that the quality control department cut 3 weak songs and about 20 minutes in order to make the “classic, the album often aspires to. The biggest culprit and least memorable moment is the nine minute monotone rant “Wrap My Head Around That”, which pours a liberal label of scorn on high art, and rambles on with what seems like minimal musical objective. The sparse, bluesy “Fancy Funeral” seems too wrapped up in the dour iconography one would associate with Williams, and the lyrics feel less vivid than much of her previous work. One understands the lyrical message she’s trying to achieve on “What If?” via the closing line, but the point could have been made in a lot less than 5M.41S, and really didn’t need to include banalities such as "If dogs became kings, and the Pope chewed gum, and hobos had wings, and God was a bum".The supporting cast works superbly, and deserves special credit for realizing the album’s high points. Producer Willner, has an ability to arrange with an imperious degree of subtlety, from raising the ante when Williams is at her most urgent (“Come On”), to quietly shadowing her raw rasp on the more introspective moments (“Unsuffer Me”). The guitar work of both Bill Frisell and Doug Pettibone intertwines with Williams’ acoustic perfectly, deliberately crafted to fully expose the strength of the songs and develop a musical theme to match the lyrics. This is more than prevalent on the desperately sad “Learning How To Live”, as Williams laments the loss of her love to an accompaniment that matches the words and vocal with an un-erring, lonely accuracy. The descending strings add a soulful atmosphere to the superb “Unsuffer Me”, as Lucinda coaxes her lover to “Come in to my world, of loneliness, and wickedness, and bitterness, unlock my love”. Those lines couldn’t be more applicable in context to the pick of the album, the soaring culmination of an anger that rages with unrestrained vitriol on the epic “Come On”. Williams’ animation is at its most aurally visual as she spits “You think you're in hot demand, but you don't know where to put your hand, let me tell you where you stand, you didn't even make me come on”.As a continuation of an outstanding career, “West” has all the rare passion and articulacy of previous recordings, added with Williams’ unique vocal style and consistent instrumental delivery. It’s flawed by a couple of mis-fires, but there are still enough significantly powerful statements to overcome any reservations.7/10
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