Having delivered more than a few modern classics to the great American songbook, Lucinda Williams has been a critical favourite throughout her long and storied career. Renowned for her honest brand of blues-infused country folk, with this new double album she delivers more of the smoky Southern heartache that’s been her stock-in-trade since her breakthrough record Lucinda Williams came out 26 years ago.
This is a more comfortable release than previous offerings from the sometimes tortured songstress. Maybe it’s her 61 years that have given her a newfound peace, but Williams has lost her vitriol entirely. The resigned wisdom of songs like East Side of Town and Big Mess show pathos instead of pain, and When I Look at the World and Stowaway in your Heart are downright cheery. Williams hasn’t deserted her darkness completely, it just seems it’s all somehow easier for her now.
For any long-time fans this record will tick all the boxes. Williams finds inspired form in parts, and guest spots from the likes of Jakob Dylan and Tony Joe White lend some good colour. The ‘band live in a room’ production mostly works well, though I would’ve still liked a bit more sonic variation to shake up the jammy 12-bar blues numbers. That said, while some of the album’s 20 tracks can feel a bit samey at first, they do reveal their nuances with repeated listens.
Maybe a few songs could’ve been trimmed, but Ms Williams seems to be revelling in a settled and newly-prolific phase and I can’t fault her enthusiasm. There’s still plenty of light and shade on this record, and still an abundance of evocative lines that could only come from a songwriter of Williams’ calibre. All in all, Lucinda Williams is still telling it like it is, just ‘it’ seems a little better these days.
BY JULIAN DOUGLAS
Best Song: East Side of Town
If You Like This You’ll Like These: RYAN ADAMS, NEKO CASE, EMMYLOU HARRIS
In A Word: Settled
