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Lucinda Williams
West
(Lost Highway/Universal)
It took Buddha countless lifetimes to understand that all existence is suffering. He could have saved himself a lot of trouble and just listened to a Lucinda Williams CD instead.
We kid because we love. But also because it's true. For years now, the Louisiana singer-songwriter has been a woman of constant sorrow. Americana's queen of heartache, if you will. And she has ruled her own sad and beautiful world of misery, death, sorrow, tears, loss, regret and longing.
At first, her eighth studio album West seems like just another chapter in her lifelong tale of woe. All the usual Lucindaisms are in full effect on these 13 tracks: The downbeat roots and country songs. The lethargic grooves. The smoky southern vibe. The guitars that lazily twang and shimmer. And, of course, Lucinda's rusty, cracked vocals, which always sound like they've been soaked in sour-mash and curdled with the resignation that comes from realizing life is just never gonna go your way. It's all produced by the great Hal Willner, a man who knows a little something about dark, tragic figures from his work with the likes of Marianne Faithfull and Lou Reed.
Gotta say, though, sometimes the 54-year-old Williams can make those two seem like Pollyannas. As usual, West finds her digging deep into her diary and spreading the misery around. Her label touts this as "her most personal work." That begs the question: How much more personal can she get? But we see the point. Two of these tracks are about the death of her mother.
One -- Fancy Funerals -- lashes out at an extravagant service that Williams refused to attend because her mom would have hated it. That's right; she didn't go to her own mother's funeral. If that doesn't give her enough pain and guilt to fuel an album, there's always her eternal romantic woes.
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They are documented yet again in all their raw, naked glory on tunes like the bleak Everything Has Changed, the funky epic Wrap My Head Around That and the angry Come On, where she blasts an inadequate lover ("You can't light my fire so f-- off!"). Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
And yet, there is something different about West. It takes a few listens before you realize there is a hopeful light in all this darkness. It's dim, to be sure, but it's there. It's there in Are You Alright?, where she worries about a former love. It's there in Learning How to Live, where she picks herself up, dusts herself off and moves on. It's there in the dirge Unsuffer Me, when she begs to be healed of her "loneliness and wickedness and bitterness." It's there in What If, a sort of Americana Imagine. It's even there in the searching Where is My Love?, which suggests that even if Lucinda hasn't found The One just yet, she still thinks he's out there somewhere.
That may not be happiness. But it's probably as close as Lucinda Williams is going to get in this lifetime.
Track Listing:
1. Are You Alright?
2. Mama You Sweet
3. Learning How To Live
4. Fancy Funeral
5. Unsuffer Me
6. Everything Has Changed
7. Come On
8. Where Is My Love?
9. Rescue
10. What If
11. Wrap My Head Around That
12. Words
13. West