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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Essence
Universal acclaim
Based on 11 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Lost Highway
Release Date: 05 June 2001
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Folk, Rock
Summary
Although Lucinda Williams' recording career began in 1979, this is just her sixth full-length release, following 1998's well-received 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.' 'Essence' features 11 new trackes penned by Williams and co-produced by Charlie Sexton and Bo Ramsey.
Also By This Artist: Little Honey Live @ The Fillmore West World Without Tears
Also On The Web: Lost Highway Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Salon.com
It's a nervy progression, almost necessarily uneven because of the risks it takes, balancing a grace that soars toward aching perfection with an intimacy that elicits a squirmy discomfort.
Read Full Review >Mojo
There's no easy niche in which you can place this new statement: like Dylan's Time Out Of Mind, it ventures into a doomy, mythological area, where the directions are muddied and the heartbreak is total. [Jul 2001, p.98]
Entertainment Weekly
Her folkiest, gentlest album, Essence is a steamy slow-crawl... [8 June 2001, p.74]
Blender
Subduing the bright tinge of her country-flavored roots rock, Essence's acoustic musings mix Delta blues with Nick Drake-style nocturnal intimacy, while Williams's voice limits itself to a hushed drawl. [Jun/Jul 2001, p.102]
New York Magazine
By leaving her images blurry and her singing uncomplicated, Williams has found a way to capture the sound she hears in her head and obsesses over the recording process to find.
Read Full Review >Spin
As halting, spare, and downbeat as its predecessor was giddy, verbose, and, okay, downbeat. [Jul 2001, p.125]
All Music Guide
Essence sounds full and rich even in its quietest moments, and her sweet-and-sour voice blends with the arrangements with subtle perfection.
Read Full Review >Trouser Press
This mainstream update to the unvarnished directness of Sweet Old World starts slow and flirts with blandness but sparks to life about halfway through.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Subtlety is one thing, but at times Williams makes the Cowboy Junkies seem downright rambunctious.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Williams sounds withdrawn and mysterious, awash in feelings that may be too personal to share this time out.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Essence finds Williams returning to the willful intimacy of her earliest records. Laid-back, rock-ish and small in scale, Essence never achieves grandeur but won't particularly alienate the fan for whom her wonders small and large are equally magical.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Alberto N gave it a9:
strong and heartreaking: this record literally moved me to tears. Stillo does.
Russ gave it a10:
Gotta admit that when I first heard this album I thought it was just ok. But over the years I've found myself returning to it for repeated listens. Best played when feeling mellow on those quiet introspective moments. Definitely not a party album! These songs just have so much feeling that you can't help but be captured by them. now one of my alltime favorites. To hear these songs with more of a hard-edge, get Live At the Fillmore.
Brian M gave it a4:
A gut wrenching torturous record that will make many wonder why music is in their lives at all. For the liife of me, I can't figure out why this music is in anyones life. One thing is clear, this music will encourage individuals to obstain from listening to music for long periods of time. Fundamentally, this is a waste of music from an otherwise gifted singer songwriter.
Brandon S gave it an8:
A rare predominantly slow album that never gets boring. Earthy yet ethereal. Who besides Lucinda, Emmylou, and Patty Griffin can pull this off?
Cheryl H gave it a 10:
Williams' grief, almost beyond bearing, simmers and aches beneath every tune she sings, sighs, whispers in that Delta drawl. It reaches an absolute boil in the title cut 'Essence', the spiritual yearning in 'Get Right with God', and the heartbreaking, poignant closer, 'Broken Butterflies'. This was the fourth Williams CD I bought, it is still the first one I listen to every night. This is some of the best songwriting you will ever hear.
Keith B. gave it a 10:
It doesn't get any better than this. The most raw, unaffected, sensual and heartbreaking music I've heard in a very long time. It's been haunting me day and night since I first listened to it.
r kid gave it an 8:
It is easier to like after each additional listening. Not as good as 'Car Wheels' but that's not the point. She is the best of this genre around and anything after 'Car Wheels' is going to be unfairly judged. I love this cd to death anyway. Seein her live soon-can't wait.
