My life is incredibly busy these
days, but I’m hoping in the next two weeks things will settle out and I can enjoy
some well-earned time off.
Or maybe I’m just jonesing knowing
I can’t buy any music until after Christmas. Fortunately, I’ve already got a
lot. Here’s some more of exactly that!
Disc 686 is…. Little Honey
Artist: Lucinda
Williams
Year of Release: 2008
What’s up with the Cover? One quarter of
Lucinda’s face, plus some line drawing of flowers. I really like this cover,
and think Lucinda looks great. Then again, it is kind of insulting to say “I
think that quarter of your face is beautiful!” Would Lucinda infer that I meant
that three quarters of her face didn’t look good, or that I only like this
quarter because someone’s drawn a bunch of flowers coming out of her ear?
That’s just not true, Lucinda. You know I love ya, darlin’.
How I Came To Know It: I’m a big Lucinda Williams fan
so this album was me just buying her new release when it came out. This is what
I do when I love someone’s music.
How It Stacks Up: I have 11 of Lucinda Williams’ studio albums, which
I think is all of them. “Little Honey” is not my favourite but it has some
great moments – I’ll put it in eighth.
Rating: 3 stars
Lucinda Williams has always had the blues in her
soul, but “Little Honey” has more than usual. Following on the the alt-folk
style of 2007’s “West” and right before 2011’s quieter and more somber “Blessed,”
“Little Honey” feels musically lighter than both of them.
That isn’t to say it is a laugh-fest. Williams is
rightly known for her wounded and emotionally raw records. She lyrically goes
to very dark places and paints them darker with the beautiful broken twang that
makes her voice so instantly recognizable.
Williams finds the hurt early on, with the second
track “Circles and X’s”. I don’t love
the song’s melody which feels a bit disjointed but there was no denying the
gut-punch of the final verse, where she captures a relationship’s end in a
single moment:
“You turn around to wave goodbye
You look at me and linger
The morning hears you sigh
And sunlight reflects off the
silver on your finger.”
“If Wishes
Were Horses” has a better tune, as it picks up a broken relationship that
she is trying to piece back together. This being Lucinda, there’s more hurt
than hope here. Then again, there’s more hope than you might expect from
someone who has songs on previous albums about throwing up in the shower and
the shame and rejection of not being called back after a weekend fling. Feeling
like your wishes aren’t being entirely answered is pretty light fare by
comparison.
There is also a lot of uplifting songs on “Little
Honey” including the up tempo opener, “Real
Love” and the slower, but somehow more uplifting “Tears of Joy” and “Knowing”
– all songs having a nice easy quality of someone falling in love.
Musically there is some great blues guitar on this
album, particularly on “Tears of Joy,”
and “If Wishes Were Horses” so kudos
to guitarist Chet Lyster for his awesome work here. I was less enamoured with “Jailhouse Tears” where not even Lyster’s
amazing work could save this song from the duet killer that is Elvis Costello.
I know Costello is a great musical mind, but on “Jailhouse Tears” he just seems way to smug to pull off the grimy “Fairytale of New York” feel that “Jailhouse Tears” intends.
The real gut-punch on this record goes to “Little Rock Star” a song about wasted
talent and the tragedy of losing a great talent to addiction and self-loathing.
Given its release time, it can’t help but make me think of Amy Winehouse, as I
noted back when I reviewed “Back to Black.” “Little Rock Star” is the tragic bookend to Winehouse’s “Rehab.” With its sparse arrangement, and
Lucinda’s pleading vocals, “Little Rock
Star” breaks my heart every time I hear it, with lines like:
“Hey Little Rock Star, what don’t
you see
This is not all that it’s cracked
up to be
And I can’t say I blame you
For throwing the towel in or
buying more fame
By cashing your chips in
But with all of your talent, and
so much to gain
To toss it away like that would
be such a shame.”
The song ends with:
“Will you ever know happiness,
Little Rock Star
Or is your death wish stronger
than you are
Will you go up in flames like the
torches
That are carried for you.”
Sadly, we know how this story ends, but luckily it
isn’t how Lucinda’s story ended up, as she’s weathered plenty of storms and
come back stronger. “Little Honey” ends with two songs that bring the album’s
tragedy and hope together perfectly.
“Plan to Marry”
is a song that begins listing all kinds of the world’s problems, but ends with
a shout out to those who risk love and marriage and look for happiness anyway.
On the rock star front, the album ends with a
brilliant rendition of the ACDC classic “It’s
a Long Way to the Top.” It is a perfect mix of folk and hard rock, edging
to the rock side of the equation, and a good reminder that you don’t have to
cash your chips in. You just have to recognize that if you want to rock and
roll, it’s a long, hard road. Lucinda has walked it for years, and I’ll be
happily buying her records as long as she does.
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