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Now that we’ve all had a few weeks to settle into Little Honey let’s reveal our rankings of each Lucinda record.
1. Self Titled – 5/5 – The first record I got of hers (due to Like A Rose in Transamerica) and still my favorite. The songs are simplistically brilliant and contain some of her best vocals. The production complements the material perfectly.
2. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road 5/5 – This one has remained a classic for a reason. It’s aged impeccabley and sounds as relevant today as it ever has. The musical geography of this record is amazing. I feel like I’ve been everywhere she mentions from how she describes them, the feelings that remind her of them and the way she sings them.
3. World Without Tears – 4/5 – An album I struggled to like upon first buying it. I still don’t care for a few tracks (Atonement, American Dream, and Righteously) but the other tracks far outweigh the few not so great ones. Fruits of my Labor is the strongest album opener in her entire catalog.
4. Sweet Old World – 3.5/5 – A little more hit and miss than WWT but similarly has so many strong numbers that pull the album through. It borders on sounding like leftovers from S/T at moments but tracks like Memphis Pearl, SAWHWWT, and the title track remain as some of Lu’s best songs.
5. Little Honey – 3/5 – A flawed album but a welcome step in the right direction from West. I worry that most of the songs I love off this record are really old and my least favorites are the newer tracks. Definitely leaves me excited for the next record.
6. Essence – 3/5 – I can appreciate the mood of the record but it lays pretty low on my rotation list. Some touching songs (Bus to Baton Rouge, Reason To Cry) but far too many forgettable low key numbers.
7. Happy Woman Blues – 2/5 – As much as I appreciate the vibe of this album a lot of the songs border on corny. Tracks like Maria, Lafayette and Happy Woman Blues are a lot of fun and I enjoy the young sound. It’s nice to be able to hear where she came from.
8. West – 2/5 – As someone who is genuinely more interested in the sad, slow songs as opposed to the rock songs from Lu I was really excited by the opening track. However, what follows it sounds like every song I’ve never liked of previous albums. A few dull low key songs, a few misguided angry songs, the rap style heldover from WWT, etc. Luckily there is Everything Has Changed, easily the best song on the album and one of Lu’s 10 best of all time. It pretty much saves me from giving the album a 1. [sorry]
9. Ramblin – 1/5 – Simply not my taste. I’m sure this is excellent for people who enjoy these types of songs but it really does nothing for me.
Ripley, I hate to agree with you, but i do. (Mostly.)
However, i have to rank West much higher — right now I’d put it just above LH at #5, and I’d say it is 3.5/5. It took me a while to fully appreciate this album. But there is not a song I don’t like hearing, and I can listen to it from beginning to end and let it wash over me. I find it emotionally powerful, whether I listen to individual songs or the whole album.
thanks for the update on “Rate and rank ’em”.
I’ll keep my own comments short and simple, once you get started talking/writing about Lucinda you don’t stop.
Ripley – I’m interested in hearing further about your problems with SOW. I think almost every track is a near-masterpiece to masterpiece and it remains my favorite Lucinda album to this day. I’m also interested in your further thoughts on West, I’ve seen you ripping it to shreds in some other threads and have been preparing a post about it for awhile now as it’s the most divisive album in her catalogue and am interested in how people view it now after so much time to let it sink in and getting over the dissolution of the luv band. (going to give it a few more listens before I post my final thoughts)
Ray – It also took me awhile to appreciate West. It was the most disastrous first listen (and 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th) to an album I’ve ever had, but I’ve come to almost love it now. It takes a lot of time, patience, and understanding to really get what Lucinda was trying to do with that record, and once you do you can begin to appreciate all the beauty in it. There were a lot of keys to unlocking that record for me, I’ll post more on those in my upcoming treatise on West 🙂
1.) Car Wheels (5/5) – Masterpiece. Top 10 albums all time. Every track is great, her most cohesive.
2.) Lucinda Williams (5/5) – Masterpiece. Top 50 albums all time. Every track is great.
3.) Sweet Old World (5/5) – Masterpiece. Top 100 albums all time. One of the most compassionate albums ever made. Every track is great
4.) Essence (4.5/5) My favorite vocal album from Lucinda (I think Car Wheels bridged the gap in Lucinda going from being a good singer to a great singer) and I love the production sound -one of the best mood albums I’ve heard. I Envy the Wind, Blue, Essence, Reason to Cry are some of her best. I have mild issues with the songwriting on Broken Butterflies(verbose) and Bus to Baton Rouge even though I enjoy listening to them.
5.) World Without Tears (4.5/5). Some of her best songs (Fruits of my Labor, Sweet Side, Those Three Days) and possibly her worst (American Dream). I’d say Essence and WWT are about even in terms of song quality, but Essence is far more cohesive.
6.) West (4/5) – Some of her best lyrics (Are you Alright, Wrap My Head Around That, Rescue, Everything Has Changed), many great songs, an amazing studio band, some stuff bogged down by overlong/oppressive production, and possibly her worst song (What If). One of the most challenging albums I’ve heard.
7.) Little Honey(3.5-3.75/5) Probably will post a longer review of this like a lot of other people have once I have time, for now – good collection of songs with a natural flow and a great band. There isn’t a track on here that I would classify as a masterpiece (a first for a Lucinda album IMO) but most of the songs are good-great, some real good ones in Circles and X’s, If Wishes Were Horses, Knowing, Honey Bee, Well Well Well, Heaven Blues), a few missteps (Rarity, even though I think a few of the verses are beautiful, and It’s a Long Way to the Top) I also prefer the live version of Little Rock Star, the 2005 stark and lonely version of Tears of Joy I heard in Minneapolis which took me to another place, and a version of Jailhouse Tears that has a duet partner more suited to the song (and yes, I am a fan of a lot of Costello’s work). I think the version of Real Love turned out really nice from what it began as in 2005, Honey Bee sounds far better than I expected, and Knowing grows richer each time I listen to it after initially not liking it as much as the live versions from 2005. Dougy P continues to be one of the best guitarists working today.
8.) Happy Woman Blues (3.5/5) Great songwriting, great collection of tunes, terrible production. This is one of my favorite driving albums, and while the production tries to kill many of the songs, the songwriting is just too good to die throughout the whole thing. One masterpiece in Sharp Cutting Wings.
9.) Ramblin’ (3/5) It is what it is, nothing more, nothing less. One of those albums I bring out from time to time and am always surprised by how listenable it is. Great version of Satisfied Mind.
Here are my rankings, today, without many words, you know the words already.
1 – Lucinda Williams
2 – Sweet Old World
3 – Car Wheels
4 – Little Honey
4.5 – LU in ’08
5 – Essence
6 – World Without Tears
7 – West
8 – Happy Woman Blues
9 – Ramblin’Special mention goes to the single “Here in California” on the Treasures left behind: Remembering Kate Wolf album, I song I love to listen to often. Also, the live shows of her top 4 and 6th albums in LA and NY are a huge treat for her fans. I need to listen to Live at Filmore again.
@CliveDanko wrote:
I’ll keep my own comments short and simple, once you get started talking/writing about Lucinda you don’t stop.
Ripley – I’m interested in hearing further about your problems with SOW. I think almost every track is a near-masterpiece to masterpiece and it remains my favorite Lucinda album to this day. I’m also interested in your further thoughts on West, I’ve seen you ripping it to shreds in some other threads and have been preparing a post about it for awhile now as it’s the most divisive album in her catalogue and am interested in how people view it now after so much time to let it sink in and getting over the dissolution of the luv band. (going to give it a few more listens before I post my final thoughts)
Ray – It also took me awhile to appreciate West. It was the most disastrous first listen (and 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th) to an album I’ve ever had, but I’ve come to almost love it now. It takes a lot of time, patience, and understanding to really get what Lucinda was trying to do with that record, and once you do you can begin to appreciate all the beauty in it. There were a lot of keys to unlocking that record for me, I’ll post more on those in my upcoming treatise on West 🙂
I suppose my problems with SOW are that it sounds very very transitional (which could be hindsight, of course). It has echoes of S/T and hints at Car Wheels/Essence. Despite being one of her more overt albums thematically I still feel as if it is not a very clear artistic point of view like S/T or CW. It’s an album I rarely listen to start-finish because it’s too uneven for that approach. I tend to ease my way through the songs and leave off a few.
As for West, my anger towards that album has subsided. I’m sure I came off nearly looney around its release but a lot of that came from it being the first LW record to come out since I became a fan in 2005. I can respect what Lucinda was going for but unfortunately it is one of the most self indulgent records I have ever heard. In fairness, Lucinda has always been a VERY self indulgent artist. The problem is whether or not this indulgence aligns with the listener’s own indulgence. Lucinda likes to do what she wants and make the records that she wants to make and thats never going to please her whole fan base you just have to hope as a listener you luck out and the album is your cup of tea.
Hate to have an old wound reopened but though I find I have much in common with Ripley, the one thing I cannot do is a revision on West.
The whole time it was being delayed – The Love Dis-Band, it all smacked of underlying creative problems to me and I just detest that record. I tried to listen to it before Little Honey came out as I felt enough water had passed under the bridge but I’m sorry – it was even worse than I remember.. I bought three copies when it came out to give away two to friends so maybe that had an effect. I don’t like John Lennon when he is too personal and some of that was like his autobiographical style. To me some of the songs are barely written at all. Thank the Lord Little Honey is much better.
I had to revisit West after seeing how much I listened to it when it first came out. Songs I really like off West:
Are you Alright
Mama You Sweet
Learning How to Live – Is this about her mom?
Fancy Funeral – This is about her mother.
Where Is My Love – The strings are great on this and her voice sounds great
Rescue – Show opener when I saw her on the West tour I vividly remember being awesome live.
What If – presidents could be black
Wrap My Head Around That – This confusing wording always cracks me up. “What I said you said I said…”This album has plenty of good songs on it, not every single one, but its certainly not an album to be damned at all (imho). I’m usually listening the the underlying guitar, and instrumental playing as much as or more than the words and melody. Eight great songs out of 13 isnt too shabby.
Steve
Wow, I thought this thread was going to inspire a great number of replies and we could have some long, intelligent Lucinda discussions like the ones that used to take place on the Offical Fan Club board (could it be that I actually miss being ripped off for $30?) Anyway, good effort Ripley, and everyone else who has posted. I was thinking about putting up a Survivor type thread I’ve seen on other boards, where you go album by album and vote for the best/worst songs on each album until you have 1 song for each album, and then all the best songs face off against each other as a way of determining what the board’s best Lucinda songs are. But I don’t know if there would be enough responses to do something like that.
Ripley – I don’t really understand the “transitional” comment about SOW, I feel like the production stands on its own separate and different from her other albums. It might sound more similar to Self-titled, but I don’t see much hinting at Car Wheels unless you are referring to Gurf’s version of Car Wheels(a version I think pales in comparison to the released version), and then I would def. agree with you. By transitional do you mean kind of stuck in space, unsure of itself and its direction? I do agree it is one of her more overt albums thematically, in fact I would say it is definitely her most overt, something I think works in its favor. In terms of artistic point of view I feel the expression of overwhelming compassion/empathy in the face of tragedy/sadness is clear enough for me (obv there is much more to the album but just off the top of my head without having much time to think it out now I offer that simplistic POV haha) I think the production is even throughout, and overall is one of her most cohesive. How do you compare SOW to the versions that are on the CBS demos? I was listening to those the other day and the production sounded better than I remember, and I forgot about the many lyrical changes i.e. He Never Got Enough Love.
World Without Tears was the first new album for me after becoming a fanatic, and while I didn’t feel anger, I did get a strong sense of “this just isn’t as good” which kicked in about halfway through the album (long after Fruits of my Labor of course :)), but that subsided fairly quickly as well as I was proven wrong. I guess West is self-indulgent, and instead of transcending pain, one could interpret it as asking the listener to identify and feel only with HER pain and not the collective pain. I don’t know if that is what she is asking though, as I initially found the album to be the most withholding thing I had ever listened to, an album that had intentionally put barriers up at every turn. I guess that could also be classified as self-indulgent.
Steve – Here in CA is a great song indeed. I feel like most of Lucinda’s non-album songs and covers almost always wind up being A material. I have a 3 disc set of her non-album stuff and I wound up losing one of them ( still holding out hope) but sooooo much great material there.
And you are right about West. Most of the songs, taken on their own, are great or near great (although I don’t agree on What If and Learning How to Live). The problem I continue to have with the album is the track order and the way it flows into and within the second half. I listened to it all the way through the other day and for the most part it seemed OK, better than before so I guess it depends on my mood, location, and time of the day. Adding to your list I think West, Unsuffer Me are bot very good, Words is pretty good and I think could benefit from a different style production, and Everything Has Changed is a revelation, one of her best as ripley mentioned before.
If I were to tank the songs per album I suppose….
West
1. Eveything Has Changed
2. West
3. Are You Alright?
4. Where Is My Love?
5. Words
6. Fancy Funeral
7. Mama You Sweet
8. -13. (honestly I doubt I could even rank the rest because I’ve never been struck by them since the album came out. I probably couldn’t even pin Rescue or What If if someone was playing them for me. As for songs like Come On and Wrapped My Head Around That, they would fall to the bottom anyway.)World Without Tears
1. Fruits of My Labor
2. People Talkin
3. Ventura
4. Those Three Days
5. World Without Tears
6. Minneapolis
7. Overtime
8. Words Fell
9. Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings
10. Sweet Side
11. Righteously
12. Atonement
13. American DreamEssence
1. Bus To Baton Rouge
2. Reason To Cry
3. Essence
4. Are You Down?
5. Blue
6. I Envy The Wind
7. Get Right With God
8. Lonely Girls
9. Steal Your Love
10. Out Of Touch
11. Broken ButterfliesCar Wheels on a Gravel Road
1. Greenville
2. Jackson
3. Still I Long For Your Kiss
4. Lake Charles
5. Metal Firecracker
6. I Lost It
7. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
8. Right In Time
9. Drunken Angel
10. 2 Kool 2 Be 4-gotten
11. Can’t Let Go
12. Concrete and Barbed Wire
13. JoySweet Old World
1. Memphis Pearl
2. Sweet Old World
3. Something About What Happens When We Talk
4. Little Angel, Little Brother
5. Pineola
6. Which Will
7. Lines Around Your Eyes
8. Prove My Love
9. Six Blocks Away
10. Hot Blood
11. He Never Got Enough Love
12. Sidewalks of the CityLucinda Williams
1. Like A Rose
2. Changed The Locks
3. Crescent City
4. Big red Sun Blues
5. Side of the Road
6. The Night’s Too Long
7. Price To Pay
8. Abandoned
9. Am I Too Blue?
10. I Just Wanted To See You So Bad
11. Passionate Kisses
12. I Asked For WaterWay to make a list Ripley! Hopefully this will spark some great intellectual discussion, lists are just lists but a great way to start digging deeper into everything. I’m double checking mine now before I post. I have a list of every Lucinda song ranked top to bottom but it changes so often I don’t know if I feel comfortable posting it just yet, but will post my album for album like you did. Just a few comments on yours for now –
Sweet Side very far down – I take it you don’t dig the talking blues or “hip-billy” style as she said in an interview haha
I think Passionate Kisses is one of the greatest pop songs ever written, right up there with some of my other go-to songs like Prince “When u were mine”.
On my list of all Lucinda songs 2 Kool 2 be forgotten is at the very top. I think it has the best lines she has ever written:
Leaning against the railing of a Lake Charles bridge
Overlooking the river leaning over the edge
He asked me baby would you jump into the water with me
I told him no way baby that’s your own death you seeI think “Minneapolis” might be the most underrated song she has
I saw you mentioned Transamerica/Like a Rose in another post. I think it is an amazing use of music in a very powerful scene and the song sounded absolutely incredible in full surround sound in the theater. I thought the film was pretty standard “road movie” structure for the first half, but a GREAT second half.
It’s amazing to think about songs that seem relatively simple in the grand scheme of things, like Price to Pay, Lines Around Your Eyes, Over Time, to name a few, and to see the depths which she takes them to which almost any other artist can’t do.
Why no Happy Woman Blues and Little Honey?
Clive – It does seem like the activity on this forum has slowed a bit lately. I guess everyone is out raking leaves. I can’t spend the time to rank every song but I can certainly pick a personal favorite off each album as I listen to her cover Cold Cold Heart off the Hank Williams Tribute album that came in the mail this week. I’m not much of an “intellectual” when it comes to music since, being an engineer makes me a left side dominant individual. When the music’s playing its the quieter right hemisphere’s turn to dominate.
Lucinda Williams – I agree with ripley’s selection of “Like a Rose”. This has got to be the best sounding vocal performance she has recorded. Its simple, just a few stringed instruments, and her own instrument.
Sweet Old World – “Which Will” I know this is a cover of Nick Drake’s song, but she brings an emotion to it I can feel.
Car Wheels – “Right in Time” It was a hard pick from a great album, but it just steams with her sexiness.
Little Honey – “The Knowing” I love the guitar work at the beginning of this song. I picked it as the best on my first listen to the album, and it still is.
LU in ’08 – “For What it’s Worth” Already an old favorite, she brings new energy to this classic protest song written by one of my favorite songwriters – SS.
Essence – “Bus to Baton Rouge” This song has some incredible visual imagery in it. How she can make me see her childhood home with just a few words amazes me. I guess it reminds me of my childhood home with the “company couch” and “the dining room no one ate at”.
World Without Tears – “Righteously” Again, the opening guitar makes me want to get up and start moving, and again her sexiness drips off this track. What other artist could record a song like this.
West – “Rescue” She opened with this song at the show I went to during the West tour and it immediately captured my full attention, and it still does.
Happy Woman Blues – “Sharp Cutting Wings (Song to a Poet)” This ranks up with songs off any of her albums.
Ramblin’ – “Disgusted” Am I allowed to pick this one, since its also on the Rough Trade album, ok then “Satisfied Mind”
I wonder if Webmasta could set up the voting poll thing. tntracy, how did you set up your poll?
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