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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.
- Record Label: Lost Highway
- Genre(s): Rock, Folk
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 11 out of 11
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Mixed: 0 out of 11
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Negative: 0 out of 11
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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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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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SpinAs halting, spare, and downbeat as its predecessor was giddy, verbose, and, okay, downbeat. [Jul 2001, p.125]
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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.
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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.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 8
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Mixed: 2 out of 8
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Negative: 0 out of 8
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RussAug 14, 2007
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KeithB.Nov 11, 2001
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CherylHApr 5, 2004
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rkidOct 19, 2001
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BrandonSFeb 3, 2005A rare predominantly slow album that never gets boring. Earthy yet ethereal. Who besides Lucinda, Emmylou, and Patty Griffin can pull this off?
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MikeT.Jul 11, 2001
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BrianMMar 2, 2006
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