Lucinda Williams was born confronting demons, and her emotionally charged prose has been haunting listeners for 28 years with the type of gritty honesty few in her field could possibly replicate. Her ravaged, heartfelt musings are often far from comforting, and one could argue that the biting lyrics draw more similarities to the blues than her gentle Alt. country soundscapes. At 54, life’s turmoil’s have fueled her first release since 2003s “World Without Tears”. The death of her mother, and the breakup of a long standing relationship form the subject matter for much of the embittered penmanship on “West”, and her wistful, lived in voice tackles each track with a mixture of defiance, anger and sad resignation. For most of the record, the pain and emotional fragility of her songs works extremely well, and the highlights genuinely compete with anything from the magnificent “Car Wheels On A Gravel Road”. That said, there’s only so much overwrought self referential sorrow one can fully digest in one sitting, and at 69 minutes, the hurt she’s portraying becomes tiresome. Producer Hal Willner, should have suggested that the quality control department cut 3 weak songs and about 20 minutes in order to make the “classic” the album often aspires to. The biggest culprit and least memorable moment is the nine minute monotone rant “Wrap My Head Around That”, which pours a liberal label of scorn on high art, and rambles on with what seems like minimal musical objective. The sparse, bluesy “Fancy Funeral” seems too wrapped up in the dour iconography one would associate with Williams, and the lyrics feel less vivid than much of her previous work. One understands the lyrical message she’s trying to achieve on “What If?” via the closing line, but the point could have been made in a lot less than 5M.41S, and really didn’t need to include banalities such as “If dogs became kings, and the Pope chewed gum, and hobos had wings, and God was a bum”.

The supporting cast works superbly, and deserves special credit for realizing the album’s high points. Producer Willner, has an ability to arrange with an imperious degree of subtlety, from raising the ante when Williams is at her most urgent (“Come On”), to quietly shadowing her raw rasp on the more introspective moments (“Unsuffer Me”). The guitar work of both Bill Frisell and Doug Pettibone intertwines with Williams’ acoustic perfectly, deliberately crafted to fully expose the strength of the songs and develop a musical theme to match the lyrics. This is more than prevalent on the desperately sad “Learning How To Live”, as Williams laments the loss of her love to an accompaniment that matches the words and vocal with an un-erring, lonely accuracy. The descending strings add a vivid atmosphere to the superb “Unsuffer Me”, as Lucinda coaxes her lover to “Come in to my world, of loneliness, and wickedness, and bitterness, unlock my love”. Those lines couldn’t be more applicable in context to the pick of the album, the soaring culmination of an anger that rages with unrestrained vitriol on the epic “Come On”. Williams’ animation is at its most aurally visual as she spits “You think you’re in hot demand, but you don’t know where to put your hand, let me tell you where you stand, you didn’t even make me come on”.

As a continuation of an outstanding career, “West” has all the rare passion and articulacy of previous recordings, added with Williams’ unique vocal style and consistent instrumental delivery. It’s flawed by a couple of mis-fires, but there are still enough significantly powerful statements to overcome any shortcomings.

7/10

1 Are You Alright? 5:18
2 Mama You Sweet 4:44
3 Learning How to Live 5:11
4 Fancy Funeral 4:14
5 Unsuffer Me 5:40
6 Everything Has Changed 3:38
7 Come On 4:53
8 Where Is My Love? 5:22
9 Rescue 5:34
10 What If 5:41
11 Wrap My Head Around That 9:06
12 Words 3:32
13 West 5:44

“Come On”

“Learning How To Live”