Album Review // Lucinda Williams // World's Gone Wrong

Highway 20 Records

5/5 stars

Since her first Folkways release in 1979, Lucinda Williams remains prolific. She has experienced occasional success with constant notoriety. Lucinda's voice soothes like whiskey as she simultaneously holds the broken bottle to our throats. She sings lullabies over our burning beds. She tells modern folktales of barefoot maidens dancing inches from the gnashing teeth of wolves. She is a Southern Gothic godmother who conjures O'Conner, Faulkner, and Crews. Lu refuses to play the polite, good girl. No shrinking violet, she is a tall strong oak. We can trust her. She will always tell it like it is. When we can't find the words, Lu will.  Her past activism forges this latest release. When pressure cookers are about to blow, musicians and artists are our high-pitched whistles. She gives us vignettes, ballads, and anthems – all moody with optimism. Always on the verge of down-and-out yet without hopelessness. Impudent guitars cruise like a big sedan creeping through back alleyways, revving the engine and flashing the high beams. The album is solid and rich. The commanding tracks repeatedly hit with bruised knuckles as we anxiously await each punch: "Freedom Speaks," "Low Life," "We've Come Too Far to Turn Around, " "Everyone Knows the World's Gone Wrong," "How Much Did You Get for Your Soul?" and "Something's Gotta Give."