Lucinda Williams - Essence
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Lucinda WilliamsEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2001-06-05
Music Label: Lost Highway
Soundtracks:
- Lonely Girls
- Steal Your Love
- I Envy The Wind
- Blue
- Out Of Touch
- Are You Down?
- Essence
- Reason To Cry
- Get Right With God
- Bus To Baton Rouge
- Broken Butterflies
Free Music Notes for Essence
Free Music Review: Achingly beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
This is as close to a perfect CD as Lucinda gets. Every song is an excellent one. She entered the 21st century on "Essence" with instrumentation that doesn't sound dated, unlike her earlier recordings, and someone has to say it - no one does below - she really came into her own as a vocalist here. A voice I often found grating and poorly controlled is suddenly smoky, sultry, breathy, full of feeling - she has absolutely mastered her singing. "Essence" is where she finally gets it all right musically as well as lyrically. Like many long-time fans, this wasn't my favorite Lucinda CD when it was first released, but on re-listening to all her CD's this month, it now strikes me as her best.Surely you aren't going to read the 158 reviews below, but I just did to see if I really had anything to add, and I'll sum them up for you. Some people don't like Lucinda Williams; guess if you don't then you shouldn't buy this. Those who do like her often preferred the spunkier sound of her earlier recordings; I prefer the mature, masterful, simmering intensity here. Others wrote over and over how this was Lucinda stripped to her "essence", with a lot of plays on that word. They thought all this was minimalist and brilliant. I tend to agree, but then I'd say the same about a lot of her older material, too. You can't get much simpler than, say, "I Just Wanted to See You So Bad", "Something About What Happens When We Talk", or "Joy", from her previous three CD's. Oh, and some felt the evocative poetry from earlier recordings was missing here. I can't imagine what they were thinking; this music may evoke more feelings than images, but the images are often remarkably detailed, as in "Bus to Baton Rouge".
The first three tracks are just sublime, as is "Essence", a song that asks the question, how can a not-particularly-attractive middle-aged woman with a bad voice be this drop-dead sexy? (Sort of gives hope to not particularly attractive middle aged reviewers with worse voices). "Get Right With God" sounds a lot like "Can't Let Go" on the "Car Wheels" CD, and I don't think it sounds out of place here as some reviewers did. "Bus to Baton Rouge" is another childhood story that is extraordinarily reminiscent of "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" in its description of childhood scenes and feelings, but not in its sound. Overall, these songs of loneliness and love are absolutely amazingly achingly beautiful. If I had to give away all my Lucinda CD's but one, I'd keep this one.
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