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- By date
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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.
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MojoThere'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]
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Entertainment WeeklyHer folkiest, gentlest album, Essence is a steamy slow-crawl... [8 June 2001, p.74]
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BlenderSubduing 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]
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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.
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SpinAs halting, spare, and downbeat as its predecessor was giddy, verbose, and, okay, downbeat. [Jul 2001, p.125]
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Essence sounds full and rich even in its quietest moments, and her sweet-and-sour voice blends with the arrangements with subtle perfection.
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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.
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Subtlety is one thing, but at times Williams makes the Cowboy Junkies seem downright rambunctious.
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Williams sounds withdrawn and mysterious, awash in feelings that may be too personal to share this time out.
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This mainstream update to the unvarnished directness of Sweet Old World starts slow and flirts with blandness but sparks to life about halfway through.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 10 out of 14
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Mixed: 3 out of 14
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Negative: 1 out of 14
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AlbertoNJan 6, 2008strong and heartreaking: this record literally moved me to tears. Stillo does.
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RussAug 14, 2007
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BrianMMar 2, 2006