Lucinda Williams - World Without Tears (CD)

Back To The Bluesy With Lucinda Williams

By Cherryll  May 3, 2003 | 2 out of 2 found this World Without Tears review helpful

This album is classic Lucinda Williams, as completely different and yet wholly hers as anything she has ever put out. Car Wheels felt like a journey across the South; and Essence was a journey to the center of the soul. This is the story of a woman s...talled out , and seeking the answers which exist where she is. Williams sets the tone in the opening, Fruits of My Labor, a tune with the same electric country feel as Reason To Cry, when she reminds us all Baby, sweet baby, if its all the same/take the glory over the fame. She plays with both the language and rythms of rap on Righteously, which finds its center in the driving electric guitar licks and ballances the why you wanna dis me/after the way you been kissin me with the by hammering home the line Just play me John Coltrane. Ventura is a pretty, road styled tune about traveling the California Coast in search of release. Next comes an track about what country music, and all music, could use more of right now--Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings. It is a song Williams fans could sing to her I climbed all the way inside/Your tragedy/I got behind/the majesty. Overtime is a haunting, syncopated song about the advice well meaning friends give someone getting over loss. Those Three Days is an open, bluesy rant about the after effects of a three night stand. Atonement is a starteling, driving blues blast about wrenching forgiveness. Sweet Side offers a tender follow up to He Never Got Enough Love, with a rap based melody that still sounds surprisingly country. Minneapolis offers goergous instrumentals accompanied by Williams hauting vocals. She goes into a classic blues swing for People Talking, a lyrical gripe about gossip and waggin tongues. Next she offers a stark picture of the American Dream with Vietnam Vets hooked on heroine and working class heros out of a job and out of luck when, Everything is wrong. This she follows up with the almost hymn like World Without Tears where she askes If we lived in a world without tears...how would broken find the bones. She closed with the equally stately Words Fell a perfect closing note for such a gifted song writer. Lucinda Williams is known for being a perfectionist in the studio, and this album reveals her work ethic. The songs are poetic and meaningful, the instrumentals are haunting and complex and the vocals are emotional, pitch perfect and distinctive. PS: For perfect listening accompaniment try Mary Gauthiers Filth and Fire and Maria McKees self titled Read more Less