Customer Reviews

West

5 star:		(92)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

It may only be March but I have to say that this is going to be one of my records of the year.
Lucinda Williams has always been a peerless songwriter.She writes about lust, love, and losslike nobody else, and on this album, co-produced with Hal Wilner, she takes on such subjects as her mother's death, the state of the world, and yet another tumultuous relationship which ended badly. It's her usual tough stuff, but this time, Lucinda sneaks in a note of hope and even redemption in the very bluesy mix.
The album's 13 songs together form a largely down-tempo disc, but "West" doesn't only find Williams in a somber mood.
"Mama You Sweet" is upbeat and "Come On" is a nasty, almost raunchy kiss-off, musically akin to "Atonement" from her last album, 2003's "World Without Tears".
She injects doses of hope and light in tracks like "What If", in which she imagines a world where the president wears pink and a prostitute is a queen.
There are uncomfortable truths here, carried on easy-going melodies. "Fancy Funeral" is a wry look at death's priorities that flows as easily as drink.
Williams lost her mother and an errant lover as these songs were being written. These two truncated relationships fill "West" with exquisitely turned suffering; Williams and band provides the expert musical succour. Hal Wilner is the producer who organised this record's quietly unconventional sounds as Williams wanted them.
Equally raw and sensual is the unravelling blues of "Unsuffer Me", where Williams's ravaged voice begs: "Undo my logic/ Undo my fear" with an intensity that verges on the erotic.
Subtle and heroically blunt by turns, "West" is a meditation on abandonment and recovery, abandon and regret that deserves to be hauled out of the Americana ghetto and celebrated everywhere wounded hearts beat.
This collection sees her at her best with emotion, raw power and intoxicating, intense tunes which should appeal to much more than country and folk fans.
Four years on from "World Without Tear"s comes this studio album from Lucinda Williams, her eighth in a 37-year career - she doesn't rush.
OK, the predominant theme is pain, and no one does pain as eloquently as Lucinda - or as multifariously.
Yet "West" is all musical mood swings: from stoic, heartbreak country to fierce revenge rock, retro pop to folk, poetry to rap, mellow California to dark LA rock.
What makes Lucinda Williams such an important country artist, besides the excellent songwriting and that sultry, scarred southern voice, is her skill at stretching the genre's boundaries while mining its essence.
Which, often as not, is pain.

"West" is Lucinda's eighth studio album and simply quite brilliant. Nobody does that low-down dirty country blues like Lucinda, locking into a languid, aching groove and sending shivers down the spine of any living thing within range of that earthy vibrato.
Not that she is interested in staying within some country comfort zone, "Wrap My Head Around That" straying into uncharted territory.
It is not the first time she has slowed a lyric to spoken level, but this is a rhythmic bona fide country rap epic, a compelling narrative over nine minutes long, punctuated by snarling guitar chops and solos.

"Words" is another wise old tale written on that cracked parchment of a voice, wafting over an intoxicating melody.

She quotes her father, literature and poetry professor Miller Williams on West's sleeve notes: "You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone", and these songs are a product of an internal turmoil caused by her mother's death and an intense relationship that spectacularly crashed and burned.

Put brutally selfishly, Lucinda's loss is our gain, gut-wrenching songs like "Unsuffer Me" burn with the agony and ecstasy of "Essence", and "Fancy Funeral" has the rare power to reduce grown men and women to tears.
She has assembled a great band including Bill Frisell, Jim Keltner and her long-time guitarist, the superb Doug Petibone, who do ample justice to this scintillating set of songs.
I like it. You will be moved, to say the least.

On August 10, 2005 Lucinda Williams played at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. It was the last live concert that my wife and I saw together. Lucinda was touring in support of "Live @ the Fillmore" & said she was writing songs for a new record. As I recall, she played a new song she said she'd recently written, "Everything Has Changed." I preordered Lucinda's "West" set while my wife was still here. Today marks the fourth week since breast cancer ripped a giant unfillable hole in my universe. Lucinda lost her mother; and so themes of adjustment to loss not only resonate with me, they punctuate every breath I take. I spin the CD & Lucinda's gentle aching voice comes on, "Are you alight?" When people ask me that, I want to say, "He*l no!" But when she sings, "All of a sudden you went away; I hope you come back around someday; I haven't seen you in a real long time; Could you give me some kind of sign? Are you alright? ...Cause I've been feeling a little scared," it sounds like she's tapped into my inner dialogue as I look toward heaven and speak to the one I love. What an amazing song, "Just tell me that you're okay." If this were the only song on the CD, it'd be worth it.

"Unsuffer Me" is a grueling unflinching look at the pain of loss. Sometimes you have to stare it in the face to get through it. "Anoint my head with your sweet kiss, my joy is dead; I long for bliss," she sings as what I assume is Dan Pettibone's electric guitar churns mercilessly. Yet somehow the song achieves a magical dignity. During my wife's last weeks, my daughter said to me, "It's like watching a train wreck; you can't look away." There something of that strength that comes through in Williams' music.

Other cuts are also amazing. "Learning How to Live" is a breakup song, adjusting to loss. "Fancy Funeral" may sound a bit bizarre, but I can attest that my daddy and I had almost an exact same conversation in 2001 when my mother passed. The sheer force of Lucinda's anger in "Come On" puts a smile on my face as a classic bashed-breakup song, "Dude, you're so fired; shut up, I'm not inspired." "Words" has Lucinda's voice, weathered, worn & laden taking comfort in something she likes best, writing a good song.

Yes, Lucinda has an amazing catalog of recordings from "Happy Woman Blues" to the self-titled record to Car Wheels & World Without Tears. "West" takes a well deserved place at the table as one of her most compelling, moving works. Bravo!

Late-blooming singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams is finding life no easier in middle age; the death of her mother and the end of a stormy relationship have combined to make her eighth album her bleakest so far.
The stately strum of opener "Are You Alright?" is uncharacteristically pretty, before the mood darkens on "Mama You Sweet" and soon she is singing, "The pain courses through every vein, every limb".
"Wrap My Head Around That" is the darkest place, nine minutes of snaking bass and words of betrayal, and although "Come On" provides variety by increasing the volume, the raw guitars sound even more pained than the singer's lonely rasp. It's hard going, but the quality of the songwriting shines through even the deepest gloom.
She's not exactly prolific, "West" is only her 8th studio album in a 37-year career and her first for four years, but everything Lucinda Williams does is worth waiting for.
The 50-something American singer/songwriter is a very special talent. A wonderfully gifted and honest songwriter with an ability to cross genres from the blues to folk and from country to soul and still fuse it into one deeply satisfying and moving whole.
Because although the quantity might be lacking, the quality never is.
Then there's her incredible croaky voice that can snarl or seduce depending on her mood.

West marks a different direction for Lucinda Williams. Her last studio album, World Without Tears, was recorded live in the studio (i.e., the whole band is playing together simultaneously, not laying down separate tracks). That approach yielded a rugged and raw production that was a departure from the highly polished recordings embodied in Essence and Car Wheels, the two albums through which many of Lucinda's current fans discovered her. West does not have that "live in the studio" rawness, but it has a looser feel than Essence and Car Wheels. (I'm listening on good headphones with a good headphone amplifier; the recorded sound is gorgeous and the textures of the music and Lucinda's vocals are amazing.) It has that effortless quality that demonstrates just how much effort went into getting it right.

West shows that Lucinda has matured significantly. She worked out a lot of raw emotion through World Without Tears and the ensuing live album. West doesn't sound as edgy or raw as those recordings, though "Come On" does come close. At the same time, West also sounds more organic and earthy than many of the tracks on Essence. And as many reviewers are already pointing out, it doesn't sound the way Car Wheels does either. But it doesn't need to sound the way Car Wheels does. At first blush, West sounds like something of a new direction for her, but I get the sense that if you take the time to listen carefully, you'll recognize that the songwriting talents that have made her such a unique performer in our disposable age are here in spades. The songs and lyrics are as intimate, engaging, and heartfelt as anything she's written or sung in the past two decades, if not more so. There is something immediately familiar about them. They're great songs, just not the kind that are going to get you dancing on the lawn when you see her on a summer tour.

Posterity is a hanging judge, but I think time will prove this album's worth. I'm glad to have it. Recommended without reservation. Keep up the good work, Lucinda.

Even though Lucinda Williams has looked for her joy from West Memphis to Slidell, she still hasn't found it- lucky for us. Finally, a record by Lucinda that surpasses Car Wheels.... This is her best work to date by far. Her lyrics are always superior and nothing has changed here in that respect. What has changed for the better in my opinion, is the music itself. The use of strings on this record is mesmerizing. It gives the music a full and complete feel-very deep and rich. And her lyrics blow me away- just listen to "What If" and "Mama You Sweet"- how does she do it????? This is an absolutely beautiful record- I think it's my favorite of 2007 so far. Raw, raunchy, sweet, funny, sad, and real. You can't beat that.

Let's start by saying that by today's standards, there are very few singer songwriters better than Lucinda Williams. It's almost unfair to compare it to her other work, because the bar has been set so high. With that said this one is still very good, although I would disagree with anyone that would call this her best yet. A previous reviewier stated that if you like "Essense" then you'll like this, and I have to agree with him. But "Essense" is still hard to top.
All and all, I do think that when we look back at the end of the year, and measure this C.D. with every other record put out by various artist, this one will still rank as one of the best of 2007. Great stuff as always by one of the best!

Count me as one who feels that Lucinda's greatest work was from her self titled album to Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. I love every song on those albums. What makes them special is the marriage of the music to her voice expressions. The way that the music pushes her to greater vocal heights and rawness of vocal emotion. I also loved the country sound.

The albums "Essence" and "World without Tears" were departures from the old stuff. Lucinda changed bands and went with a much more of a rock sound. I think some of these songs are great live when the band is able to stretch itself and Lucinda's singing out. But on the album format they often felt like they never got going. I do not think the band understood how to compliment Lucinda's unique style of singing. I was missing the long beautiful stories.

She is back! This time Lucinda's band sounds great behind her. This is some of her best singing since Car Wheels. The only song I could really do with out is fancy funerals.... and that will probably grow on me in time.

The best song... and maybe one of the greatest songs I have ever heard is "Learning How to Live".... wow. My fave Lucinda song since Sweet Old World. It is sad, and it is beautiful. Highly recommended!

"Where is My Love?" is very "Car Wheel and a Gravel Roadish". That song sounds great. "Are You Alright" and the beautiful "Everything Has Changed" are also highlights!

Great album!

I loved this album the first time I listened to it today, but then again, I knew I would before I even purchased it. I have heard Lucinda play most of these songs live the five times I have seen her over the last year and a half. As with so much of her previous work, Lucinda demonstrates on this album that she is a master songwriter & storyteller. Her ability to turn a phrase & paint a picture with an economy of words is amazing. My only complaint with this album is that there is not more - I was particularly disappointed that one of her other new songs, "Jailhouse Tears" didn't make the cut for this album. But, hopefully Lucinda will keep it in the wings & put it on her next one (and please continue playing it live too, Lu!).

Like others who have reviewed "West" here, I think comparisons to her previous body of work are somewhat unfair. Artists grow & change like everyone else. To expect them to remain static is unrealistic. Yet, while I may be biased (I like everything she has ever recorded - from "Ramblin'" on) I think if you truly like her past music, you will love "West".

This CD keeps drawing me back more and more. That is the way it is with all Lucinda Williams albums. This one, in particular, treads new ground musically. While Lucinda continues her theme of earnest heart felt sadness and hope for personal redemption, the soundscapes on this one are very refreshing. The addition of viola and violin work well here for Lucinda as they did for Dylan on Desire. I value this CD as a welcome and deserved addition to my Lucinda WIlliams and Americana catalog.