The strong albums continue - this one is the third straight with some harmonica (although not nearly as much as the previous two).
This disc is an artist that is one of my great musical discoveries of this decade.
Disc 161 is...World Without Tears
Artist: Lucinda Williams
Year of Release: 2003
What’s Up With The Cover?: Lucinda stands in the middle of a dingy living room and takes her jacket off. Or puts it on - it is kind of hard to tell. I like this cover because it evokes how grimy, yet sexy and real Lucinda's music is.
How I Came To Know It: I was drilling through her collection, but it was still the early stages. I believe I owned "Sweet Old World" and "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" and this was the third Lucinda Williams album I heard - probably five or six years ago or so.
How It Stacks Up: There are no bad Lucinda albums, and of her last seven, competition is stiff. I have nine of her albums. In my review for her self titled album back at Disc 37, I put her albums into three 'tiers' so I'll stick to that, even though technically this album is a "World Without Tears." Get it? Get it? Man, I crack myself up.
Anyway, "World Without Tears" is top tier again - probably 3rd best in the collection overall.
Rating: 5 stars.
This album, which came out in 2003 is a departure from her earlier work, in that it has a bit more of a rock edge to the music. She adds this element in without losing the blues and folk aspects of her music that made her famous. Like any great artist that sticks around for a while, Lucinda is always reinventing herself.
The strong rock overtones are most prevalent in "Real Live Bleeding Fingers And Broken Guitar Strings". Ordinarily, an overlong song title like this would be cause for a rant, but it is such a great song, I'm giving her a pass. It is a song about rock and roll, about idolizing the rock and roll lifestyle along with the music. As usual, Lucinda immerses herself into her topic so deeply you feel you are living it as she sings.
This album features one of the sexiest songs ever recorded, ("Righteously") as well as two of the the harshest break up songs on a single record, "Minneapolis" and "Those Three Days". Since "Righteously" will just get me all excited at a time I need to write a music review, I'll share some of the lines from "Those Three Days" instead:
"You say there's always gonna be this thing
Between us days are filled with dreams
Scorpions crawl across my screen
Make their homes beneath my skin
Underneath my dress stick their tongues
Bit through flesh down to the bone
And I have been so fuckin' alone
Since those three days."
"Did you only want me for those three days?
Did you only need me for those three days?
Did you love me forever
Just for those three days?"
Note to listeners: Have a weekend fling with Lucinda at your peril.
This album is so loaded with great lyrics, I find myself tempted to share half the liner notes, but experience teaches me reading them won't truly translate without Williams' lascivious vocal sandpaper. Instead, I'll sum up.
This record is a mix of personally painful experience through Lucinda Williams' many relationships. While I've focused on her relationships with lovers, the record also delves into the nature of fame, and how that affects an artist's relationship with themselves. It's a record that does a lot of looking inside - even at the unhappy parts.
Amidst all this doom and gloom, the title track on the record "World Without Tears" provides this bit of insightful context to life's troubles:
"If we lived in a world without tears
How would bruises find
The face to lie upon
How would scars find skin
To etch themselves into
How would broken find the bones."
Hey - I said it would be insightful, not uplifting. The record isn't uplifting, but it is as honest as music gets. Throughout this record, Williams is artistically ambitious and fearless in her willingness to show her vulnerabilities through her art.
Best tracks: Every track is worth listening to, but I'll single out Righteously, Ventura, Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings, Those Three Days, Sweet Side, Minneapolis, World Without Tears - that's over half the album, but hey, I can't cut any further.
This disc is an artist that is one of my great musical discoveries of this decade.
Disc 161 is...World Without Tears
Artist: Lucinda WilliamsYear of Release: 2003
What’s Up With The Cover?: Lucinda stands in the middle of a dingy living room and takes her jacket off. Or puts it on - it is kind of hard to tell. I like this cover because it evokes how grimy, yet sexy and real Lucinda's music is.
How I Came To Know It: I was drilling through her collection, but it was still the early stages. I believe I owned "Sweet Old World" and "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" and this was the third Lucinda Williams album I heard - probably five or six years ago or so.
How It Stacks Up: There are no bad Lucinda albums, and of her last seven, competition is stiff. I have nine of her albums. In my review for her self titled album back at Disc 37, I put her albums into three 'tiers' so I'll stick to that, even though technically this album is a "World Without Tears." Get it? Get it? Man, I crack myself up.
Anyway, "World Without Tears" is top tier again - probably 3rd best in the collection overall.
Rating: 5 stars.
This album, which came out in 2003 is a departure from her earlier work, in that it has a bit more of a rock edge to the music. She adds this element in without losing the blues and folk aspects of her music that made her famous. Like any great artist that sticks around for a while, Lucinda is always reinventing herself.
The strong rock overtones are most prevalent in "Real Live Bleeding Fingers And Broken Guitar Strings". Ordinarily, an overlong song title like this would be cause for a rant, but it is such a great song, I'm giving her a pass. It is a song about rock and roll, about idolizing the rock and roll lifestyle along with the music. As usual, Lucinda immerses herself into her topic so deeply you feel you are living it as she sings.
This album features one of the sexiest songs ever recorded, ("Righteously") as well as two of the the harshest break up songs on a single record, "Minneapolis" and "Those Three Days". Since "Righteously" will just get me all excited at a time I need to write a music review, I'll share some of the lines from "Those Three Days" instead:
"You say there's always gonna be this thing
Between us days are filled with dreams
Scorpions crawl across my screen
Make their homes beneath my skin
Underneath my dress stick their tongues
Bit through flesh down to the bone
And I have been so fuckin' alone
Since those three days."
"Did you only want me for those three days?
Did you only need me for those three days?
Did you love me forever
Just for those three days?"
Note to listeners: Have a weekend fling with Lucinda at your peril.
This album is so loaded with great lyrics, I find myself tempted to share half the liner notes, but experience teaches me reading them won't truly translate without Williams' lascivious vocal sandpaper. Instead, I'll sum up.
This record is a mix of personally painful experience through Lucinda Williams' many relationships. While I've focused on her relationships with lovers, the record also delves into the nature of fame, and how that affects an artist's relationship with themselves. It's a record that does a lot of looking inside - even at the unhappy parts.
Amidst all this doom and gloom, the title track on the record "World Without Tears" provides this bit of insightful context to life's troubles:
"If we lived in a world without tears
How would bruises find
The face to lie upon
How would scars find skin
To etch themselves into
How would broken find the bones."
Hey - I said it would be insightful, not uplifting. The record isn't uplifting, but it is as honest as music gets. Throughout this record, Williams is artistically ambitious and fearless in her willingness to show her vulnerabilities through her art.
Best tracks: Every track is worth listening to, but I'll single out Righteously, Ventura, Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings, Those Three Days, Sweet Side, Minneapolis, World Without Tears - that's over half the album, but hey, I can't cut any further.
1 comment:
A fucking great album - I love most of those songs too.
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