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Lucinda Williams
West
(Lost Highway)
Douglas Heselgrave's #5 album for 2007
John Metzger's #5 album for 2007
Are You Alright?: Memorable Song #1 for 2007
First Appeared in The Music Box, March 2007, Volume 14, #3
Written by John Metzger
Since her commercial breakthrough Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Lucinda
Williams’ albums have turned increasingly atmospheric and almost uniformly
bleak. Stunningly, the tales of heroin addiction, child abuse, and rape, which
filled World without Tears, merely serve as precursors for the
devastating depictions of loss that she relays on her latest effort West.
Although she attempts to lighten the load by dotting the outing’s landscape with
arrangements that seem to be searching for a sense of salvation, her lyrics
largely find her wallowing in her own misery, mourning, and resentment. Inspired
by the death of her mother, her contentious familial relations, and the
shattering of a long-term relationship, the song cycle is yet another intriguing
endeavor in a career that has been exemplary thus far. Nevertheless, as was the
case with West’s predecessor, the cracks in Williams’ facade have become
evident, which undoubtedly is a direct byproduct of the more rapid pace of her
recent work schedule as well as the pressure that has been placed upon her by
the many accolades that she has received.
Williams’ biggest problem of late seems to stem from the fact that she is
relying with greater frequency upon her music to do the heavy lifting. Where her
words once were chosen so carefully, she now seems content simply to capture
moods and feelings in generic terms. The more verbose that her songs become, the
more her lyrics begin to feel labored. The place where West veers
completely off its course is during Come On, an angered kiss-off to a
former lover that strives for the humorous condescension of Chrissie Hynde’s
best work. The accompanying music also is designed specifically to invoke the
spirit of the Pretenders, but in Williams’ hands the unimaginative approach
sounds ridiculously adolescent. Further complicating the situation, she follows
Come On with Where Is My Love?, a teary-eyed quest for a boyfriend
who has gone astray, and Rescue, a tune in which she realizes that only
she can resolve her psychological dilemmas. Simply put, Williams has been better
in the past at exploring similar terrain; here, she not only seems confused, but
she also treads dangerously close to settling for the sort of pretentious
observations that typically spill forth from the blogger community.
By contrast, West’s opening third is impeccable. The backing vocals on
Are You Alright? repeat the song’s title like a ghostly whisper that
calls back to Williams from across the grave, while rays of light stream from
the organic, gospel-imbued warmth of Learning How to Live’s reflections
upon coping with her losses. With its watery, ethereal keyboard accompaniment,
the meditative repetition of Mama You Sweet oscillates between conveying
the numbness of her emotions and becoming her personal mantra of perseverance,
while the claustrophobic Unsuffer Me, with its icy stabs of razor-sharp
guitar tones, embodies the horrifying depths of her pain and anguish. Near the
end of the set, Williams finds the escape that she needs by taking solace in her
pen (Words) as well as in the freedom that the open road brings (West’s
title track), and this proves to be sufficient for binding the collection
together in a way that elevates her few missteps. Even when she falters, it
seems, Williams is capable of plumbing the darkest corners of her soul and
transforming her aching sorrow into something that is hauntingly beautiful. 
West is available from
Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2007 The Music Box
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