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Essence - Lucinda Williams
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Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 11 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 15 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • 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.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. Salon.com
    100
    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.
  2. Mojo
    90
    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]
    All this publication's reviews
  3. Entertainment Weekly
    83
    Her folkiest, gentlest album, Essence is a steamy slow-crawl... [8 June 2001, p.74]
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See all 11 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Russ
    10
    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.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. CherylH
    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.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. BrianM
    4
    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.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 10 User Reviews

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