Sweet POLL World: Lucinda Williams Studio Albums

It has to be Car Wheels for me, even though it lacks the spit and grit of some of the others. She didn't really get going until the eponymous third album; the first two are pretty much juvenilia. The latest one, sadly, is a stinker – almost certainly connected to the fact that she was in a happy relationship at the time – still is, in fact. I was astonished to see she got married onstage at a gig in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago.

i think car wheels is the most consistent, but the high points on sweet old world and essence stick with me more than the high points on car wheels. hard call.

The first album is the most consistent to my ears, followed by the high points on SOW and Essence. I could barely listen to West.

The first album is the most consistent to my ears

Presumably you mean the third. So many people are unaware of her first two albums it's not funny.

yeah the self-titled album is really good, it's true.

Car Wheels, followed by Sweet Old World and the self titled one. West is 4th.

Yeah, my bad (xpost)

For me it goes Car Wheels > World Without Tears > S/T > Essence > Sweet Old World and then the rest. WWT is an incredible record.

My order would be Car Wheels > Essence > Sweet Old World. But I haven't heard the rest. Something I will have to do I gather.

I picked Car Wheels over World Without Tears -- both great albums.

The other day I tried to listen to Ramblin' for the second or third time and had to give up after a couple of tracks. It's amazing how much stronger her work became.

Greil Marcus on "Fruits of My Labor":

The first song, the modestly titled "Fruits of My Labors," begins with a shimmering, subtle progression played on a Leslie guitar. Then comes a slurred, dragging, unbelievably affected voice to tell you how deeply its owner feels: so deeply barely a single word is actually formed. Every little touch -- brushes on the snare, say -- is mixed up high, to let you know how carefully everything has been done. There is irony in "American Dream": Despite the title, the song is about how bad things (poverty, drug addiction -- because of Vietnam -- and black lung) take place in America. But the singer will press on. "Bay swee bay 'f's alla same," Williams promises, "tay th' glore en day ov' the fame." Not due til April, but why wait? It's not getting any better.

Marcus has always hated Lucinda, and it seems her delivery is his biggest problem. It's OK if Mick Jagger drawls like a southerner, of course.

Yeah and plus it's kind of rich for a critic who reps for Dylan at every available opportunity to call someone on her diction.

maybe she ran over his dog or something.

he seems to have a problem w/ Gillian Welch, too -- which is weird. Some of her songs are Greil Marcus essays set to music. anyway, i think i'd actually vote Essence in this poll -- I agree that Sweet Old World and Car Wheels have the highest high points, but for some reason Essence is the one I reach for when I want to listen to Lucinda.

Got s/t when it first came out & about wore out the CD. Much as I tried none of the others pulled me in as deep. I remember being particularly disappointed with Sweet Old World though probably because it wasn't s/t. S/T has a looseness to it lacking in Car Wheels etc. And there is even a first-class happy song, Crescent City.

I voted Car Wheels but I'm not very fluent in her oeuvre. After getting into Car Wheels I bought Sweet Old World and found it disappointing save for the Nick Drake cover. Her singing sells Car Wheels to me; she's as anxious as on Sweet Old World but her singing isn't as sweet and mannered. It sounds as worn as the hurt she's hinting at throughout. I'll also rep for Steve Earle's production on Car Wheels. I love a bunch of the records he produced in the mid 90s because it sounds like he took the sound on "Honky Tonk Women" as a template, so that the song seems to have been recorded from inside the bass drum. It makes for claustrophobic listening, like a realization of new wave's nervous ideal with a better drum sound.

Yeah but I'm unclear to what extent Earle's work survives on the released version of Car Wheels. What is known is that there are at least two versions of the album. The first one, produced by Gurf Morlix, can be found on filesharing networks. I'm not at all surprised that Lucinda nixed these tapes, as they're a far cry from the final version – much less rocky and polished. Earle took over after Williams fired Morlix but they fell out as well and he doesn't appear on the final production credits. E Street Band keyboardist Roy Bittan did the final production job.

I don't have the liner notes nearby so I can't check, but discogs lists the producer as the Twangtrust (that's Earle + his friend Ray Kennedy) and Roy Bittan as having done additional recording. I seem to remember from the liner notes that it listed maybe song by song who did the production. Discogs says Rick Rubin mixed most of the songs; I didn't know that!

Ah, thanks for that. I saw the credit for Twangtrust on the official LW site but I didn't know that was Earle. I should check discogs more often.

will anyone rep for her last few albums? the ones I've heard have been kind of ... terrible. At least the last two.

I reviewed West for Stylus – what a slog. Every song is rrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeealllllly slow. She's lost much of her sense of tension, as well as much of her lyrical acuity. Beautifully recorded though. I should have written so at the time, but West reminds me of a late eighties Bryan Ferry record.

yeah, West *sounded* really nice, but holy lord, some of those lyrics were really awful. The last one wasn't as slow, but there were just some terrible songs on there. ACDC cover was ok.

Got s/t when it first came out & about wore out the CD. Much as I tried none of the others pulled me in as deep. I remember being particularly disappointed with Sweet Old World though probably because it wasn't s/t. S/T has a looseness to it lacking in Car Wheels etc. And there is even a first-class happy song, Crescent City.

― that's not my post, Thursday, October 1, 2009 2:00 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

reminds me of a late eighties Bryan Ferry record.

I don't think so – the eponymous album slams as hard as This Year's Model.

Perhaps you're right. Maybe she went from TYM back to MAiT instead of forward to Burt Bacharach and Spike.

yeah, i voted for West--even tho i do like pretty much everything i've heard by her, and do agree that CWOAGR no doubt contains her best songwriting (if you're into that kinda thing--me, i prefer SOUND to songs...usually). anyhow, as Alfred suggests West just sounds really good. i mean, sure the overly-affected (gawd!) singing can seriously put you off initially--as happened with me the first couple of tries, til i played it back to back with Miranda Lambert's last album one time and fell in love--but if you persevere with the thing, i think you'll find that her delivery really suits the material, which is more about feel than friggin' lyrics. honestly, it's the Lucinda album i most feel like listening to these days.

My favorite is the Passionate Kisses EP with in-studio radio-station performances of "Nothin' in Ramblin'" and "Side of the Road." Also love the solo-electric cover of "Which Will" on a KCRW compilation.

For me, she really trailed off after Car Wheels. But she had a killer 3 record, 10 year run.

Her lowpoint was her was her duet with Elvis Costello a couple years back, where she ruins a perfectly good EC song with her awful vocal. It sounds like somebody doing a really mean Lucinda Williams impersonation.

It's inexplicably paired with highlights from Lost below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqSjKtO58uc

Her lowpoint was her was her duet with Elvis Costello a couple years back, where she ruins a perfectly good EC song with her awful vocal.

thanks for the West endorsement, John. I still have that album in my closet; will revisit it tonight.

cool, Alfred. i can't guarantee you'll get anything more out of it than you did originally, but hey, it's worth a try. just don't approach it as if it's any kind of "pop" record, 'cause it ain't; it's a rock, if not RAWK, record. (and now i'm gonna make a total ass of myself [right, as if i haven't done that already here...and elsewhere] and suggest that West is Lucinda's doom metal Americana opus--minus the metal, natch [tho she did cover AC/DC on her following effort, right? that's something.]. thank ye one an all.) *bows & hightails it outta this joint*

haha -- actually I DID make the Bryan Ferry comparison at the time.

There's a song on West called "What If" which not only blows everything else on that album out of the water but is also one of the four or five best songs she ever wrote. It's like this catalogue of surreal musings which somehow ends up being unbearably moving, set to this beautiful melody that just rolls along like a perfect river. Hear it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

btw, "Passionate Kisses" on repeat up in this bitch and i'm getting all misty eyed ;_;

i like to play and sing "passionate kisses" on my cheap guitar. not in a way likely to make anybody misty eyed tho. but i do love that song.

my mom was a big fan of this rekkerd when i was a kid, she had the cassette in the car.

I get all misty eyed for the Mary Chapin Carpenter version but I've never heard the original.

http://checkitoutmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/61VZd4Ym+KL.jpg

yeah been living with it for a while now. for sure it's a better record than Little Honey which has not improved at all since I slated it upthread. there is a 2cd set with the same songs done in acoustic versions but I definitely prefer the full band versions.

i've listened to blessed a couple of times and really like it - "the awakening" stood out in partic

I want a reason to listen -- never mind like -- her again. Ever since the West debacle (the last record of hers I reviewed too) I can't get over what a mannered vocalist she's become.

Co-sign, Al. Everything before that is basically gold though I'm sure I voted for "Car Wheels" (esp the 2cd version).

The eponymous '88 album is top ten or top twenty of all-time for me.

Really no love for Ramblin' here?

Listening to Essence for the first time in a long while. At the time, I thought the album a let down following the more expansive Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. I was wrong; this album is gorgeous. The first three songs on this record, especially, are as strong as anything she's ever given us.

She seems like she would be a good candidate for an ILM artist poll, no?

Essence is a super spooky album, iirc.

To me it's what Time Out of Mind aspired to be.

Absolutely.