Lucinda Williams - Essence (2001) flac

Tracklist:

[4:02] 01. Lucinda Williams - Lonely Girls (Album Version)
[3:16] 02. Lucinda Williams - Steal Your Love (Album Version)
[3:14] 03. Lucinda Williams - I Envy The Wind (Album Version)
[3:53] 04. Lucinda Williams - Blue (Album Version)
[5:30] 05. Lucinda Williams - Out Of Touch (Album Version)
[5:27] 06. Lucinda Williams - Are You Down (Album Version)
[5:52] 07. Lucinda Williams - Essence (Album Version)
[3:43] 08. Lucinda Williams - Reason To Cry (Album Version)
[4:17] 09. Lucinda Williams - Get Right With God (Album Version)
[5:53] 10. Lucinda Williams - Bus To Baton Rouge (Album Version (New Mastering))
[5:41] 11. Lucinda Williams - Broken Butterflies (Album Version)

**********

ABOUT THE ALBUM
1 disc(s) - 11 track(s)
Total length: 00:50:41
Main artist: Lucinda Williams
Composer: Lucinda Williams
Label: Lost Highway
Genre: Blues/Country/Folk, Country
© 2001 UMG Recordings, Inc.
℗ 2001 UMG Recordings, Inc.

Between her well-documented determination to retail full control of her music and the plain-spoken willfulness of her best-known songs, Lucinda Williams is practically the working definition of a strong woman you do not want to mess with, but she reveals a very different side of her musical personality on her sixth album, Essence. Subtle and often stark, Essence is an unusually quiet and frequently downbeat set that depicts a fragile emotional vulnerability which rarely makes its presence felt in Williams' music; there's an unadorned longing in songs like "Blue" and "Lonely Girls" that's new and deeply affecting, and the leaf-in-the-breeze quaver of Williams' voice on "I Envy the Wind" is as heart-rending as anything she's ever committed to tape. But while a blue mood dominates Essence, this isn't an album about the blue funk of heartbreak, but a chronicle of the search for transcendence over sorrow in our lives, as her characters look for a path out of isolation ("Out of Touch"), try to find answers through faith ("Get Right With God"), or reconcile love with the desires of the flesh ("Essence"). As a songwriter, Williams has long shown a knack for charting the human heart and mind with intelligence and economy, and Essence finds her at the peak of her form; the delicacy of this music does not speak of weakness, but of the passion and bravery it takes to bare one's soul. And while Williams has gained a certain infamy for her obsessive perfectionism in the studio, the quality of her work speaks for the wisdom of her decision-making process, and Essence proves how well she understands the art of recording; producing in collaboration with Charlie Sexton (Tom Tucker and Bo Ramsey also contributed), Essence sounds full and rich even in its quietest moments, and her sweet-and-sour voice blends with the arrangements with subtle perfection. Those hoping for another dose of the bluesy roots rock of Car Wheels on a Gravel Road may be disappointed, but if you want to take a deep and compelling look into the heart and soul of a major artist, then you owe it to yourself to hear Essence.
© Mark Deming /TiVo