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I have been reading all these reviews from national and international publications on West. I have read both positive and negative reviews from the critics, but I think the true test is what Lucinda’s fans think. So, be honest and review West in your own words.
I’ll post mine, as soon as, I do my first three listen throughs.
Get ready to search your soul and rock ‘n roll!
This should have been the follow-up to ‘Essence’. Sounds like the natural progression from Car Wheels, then Essence and this beautiful set of songs.
I’m blown away! These songs are true Lucinda, real poetry, true Americana…beautiful music.
FANTASTIC!So far I’m not getting into it. There are three songs I love (Words, Fancy Funeral and Are You Alright?) and two songs that I detest (Wrap My Head Around That and Come On) but the album might grow on me more. I actually hated WWT when I first got it but now it’s my third favorite begind Car Wheels and LW. I don’t care for Essence much and this record seems to be getting a lot of comparison to it so maybe that explains things a little. I think Essence is nice but nothing off of it is jaw droppingly good. Although Lonely Girls and Blue are nice to hear every now and again.
Anyways, so far Im not sold on West.
Ok, so I have listened to West at least three times all the way through and then the songs in various order. Before the album was released I had heard all of the songs live except “Mama You Sweet” and read the various reveiws from the media pre-realese of the album. I think now I can draw an opinion of West.
1. Are You Alright (5:18) My first impression of this song, first heard live at the Fillmore, was this is a simple message delivered from the heart. When you are concerned about someone you love all it takes is this simple phrase to let them know you care. The music mirrors the phrase perfectly and allows focus on the message. Very sweet, original and soulful perfect opener.
2. Mama You Sweet(4:44): This track starts out with a similar simplistic phrase and then takes off into verses that are as poetic and visiual as ” I Envy the Wind”. I needed at least four or five listens to get the scope of this one. A song of regret? Only Lucinda can purge such feelings with a warm soul. The sonic textures, apparent on most of the album, begins to shine at the end of the lyrics. a very pleasant ending to another great piece of writing.
3. Learning How To Live(5:11) The perfect song to decribe the time spent afetr breaking up with someone you onced loved. It is public knowledge about what most of these songs are about, but Lucinda had not spoken word about what is going in this album, these songs would obviously speak for her. I think this is a classic Lucinda song and keeps with her original musical formula, that works so well.
4. Fancy Funeral(4:14) Absolutely an outstanding song, ripe with honesty and true life experience. Reading the story of this song in the Rolling Stone interview makes her point even more poignant. I love this song for its message, nothing “can bring back what you ‘ve lost.” Once again, the production and music are very clean and non-obtrusive with the words.
5. Unsuffer Me(5:40) Easily my favorite song on the album! Powerful, is the only way to describe seeing and listening to this song live. Lucinda sheds old skin(relationship) and comes out clean, refreshed, wiser, and with perfect perspective on life. Eerie bass line, whineing guitar, and descending violen are a perfect match for the gutting words. The organ is a nice touch as well, again fantastic musical texture taking place.
6. Everything Has Changed(4:53) If “Unsuffer Me” is shedding the skin then this song is the words written on the dead skin. The excitement of the being in love is over and nothing seems the same. I can’t fathom how Lucinda can write the perfect words to describe a situation, a marvolous gift! The guitar picking and strings seem to float with the words, another gem.
7. Come On(4:53) The most criticized song on the album with prases like “immature” being tossed around left and right. My thoughts are completely opposite. I think this ode to the over-sexed rock songs of bands like Motley Crue, is great, and a welcomed laugh. Lucinda’s sense of humor is orginal, and “Come On” lightens the mood a bit on this album. Hearing this live also helps because Lu belts the pharse “Come On” showing true vocal strength.
8. Where Is My Love?(5:22) Melancholy, is the word that comes to mind when I listen to this song. The story is a little sweet, a little sour, a little soft and a little hard. The violen is absolutely spot on, a little reminscent of some Niel Young stuff. The themes in the album are really apparent by now.
9. Rescue(5:34) Sonically, this is my favorite track. Subtle, smooth and dark. Hal Wilmer and Lucinda work well as a team on this one. This song is very dreamy to me and floats weightlessly throughout. The words are powerful here too, and the signs of breaking through the walls of a “tumultuous relationship” are clear and concise. Also great live!
10. What If (5:41) Ok, I’ll admit I really was not fond of this one the first time I heard it. I think it was some of the lyrics that threw me off a bit, but it has really grown on me. The strange imagery of this semi-political song has a unique lyrical statement. I find some hope in it, whimsy and again Lucinda’s sense of humor.
11. Wrap My Head Around That(9:06) I heard this song the first time she played live at the Fillmore and fell in love with instantly. Very smart and fun to listen to. We also get some samples of Lucinda throughout the song which are a brilliant choice in my opinion. A great bass line and hear the complete textural blanket woven from a new sonic fabric. It may sound a little cheesy, but I think Lucinda really branches out musically on this album. The wordplay is amusing and I remember laughing at a few lines at the Fillmore that night.
12. Words (3:32) How approriate to write a song about words and what they mean to Lucinda. Her genuine passion for writing and words shine in this little ditty. Short, sweet and to the point, “Words” became another instant favorite inb this album. The music is light and pair perfectly with meter of the lyrics.
13. West (5:44) Finally the album’s title track and the perfect ending to a soulful heartfelt ride. This is the perfect driving through the desert song. I think she described a song, once, as being “stone country”, a perfect description of West, I think. Musically simple, but as brilliant as anything I have ever heard of Lucinda.Thanks Lucinda
Wow ! Another killer work from my very favorite singer/songwriter ! I’m so happy ! So far I like ‘Come On’ the most. Then ‘Fancy Funeral’ and ‘Where Is My Love?’ I really like the fact that there are different instruments used on this CD than on previous efforts. Not that I don’t love all of her previous CDs ‘cuz I do. Rock on LU !!
John
WEST Upon hearing it for the first time, my initial response is…
… we’re off to a good start, with Fancy Funeral as the stand out.
… reserve judgement until I EXPERIENCE them LIVE
Unsuffer Me, Come On, and Wrap My Head…
The rest of the cd… is growing “in” me.
Looking forward to North Hampton, Albany, Toronto, and Buffalo.I wanted to come on this website to tell you I love the music. I downloaded last night on to my ipod. And what great music I downloaded. I love it and I really like Lucinda a lot! Thanks for the great music!!!
After spending a day with this album, I’ve revised my opinion of it quite a bit, which is always a good sign. An album that grows and changes as I listen to it is a worthwhile album, and I’m not surprised that Lucinda’s put out another heavyweight. She’s one of the few artists I can think of who has never put out a truly bad album; though I have my favorites, I can see the artistry behind all of her work.
That said, I had my trepidations about West. I had heard nine of the thirteen tracks either in person or on bootlegs and I wasn’t sure what I thought of the songs. As much as this kind of talk has driven Lucinda crazy, I have to admit that I inevitably compare everything she’s done to Car Wheels…it’s the one album that absolutely amazed me when I first heard it. I like what someone else said here about how all of her other albums need multiple listenings to appreciate. It seems that most of her work is so subtle that it’s easy to miss what’s so great about it. Anyway, having a good idea of what the album was going to sound like I approached it cautiously, hoping it wouldn’t be the biggest disappointment since Dylan’s Modern Times.
A lot has been said about the production; I don’t think the album’s overproduced, it’s just different from what she’s done before. It does remind me of Essence in the way that it all hangs together so well. The album opens with the one-two punch of Are You Alright? and Mama You Sweet, two deceptively simple songs that are melancholy without being melodramatic. Lucinda’s always been great at crafting thoroughly depressing songs, but I don’t see this album as being as sad as much of the last two. There’s a note of optimism intermingled with the sadness, much as there is in Sweet Old World. Anyway, Learning How To Live fills out a very nice opening trifecta, and then it starts to get a bit inconsistent.
A major problem I have with the album is that for all of the songs I had previously heard except one, the live versions were either superior or equal to the album. Where Is My Love? is the only song that the album does a great job of taking beyond the live versions she’s been performing since 2005. Everything Has Changed, Words, and West are all okay, but the others lose some of the magic they had live. Come On is just plain weak on the album; you’ve got to hear Lucinda’s almost primal scream when she does this live to understand how much the album version lacks. She did this one at the first show I saw and it left a huge impression on me, despite the fact that it was months before I found a live recording of the song. Rescue still sounds best to my ears in the stark arrangement of it that circulates on the New Songs compilation that someone put together a while back; the tension between the overly talkative audience, the relatively low quality of the recording, and the heartbreaking beauty of Lucinda’s voice is priceless and, to be fair, would’ve been impossible to equal in the studio.
I do have to criticize Wrap My Head Around That as the clear low point of the album. I give Lucinda credit for being audicious enough to record a track like this, but a song like this fails because the genius of Lucinda’s music is the way that her unique voice and lyrics combine to create something distinctive; here, the lyrics feel cobbled together and there’s little emotion in her voice. The decision to repeat most of the song and make this an epic-length track further highlights how this one should’ve been an outtake. Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh; I will say that I liked this one a little more today than yesterday. Nevertheless, I was hoping for some deft wordplay on the level of Righteously, and I didn’t get it.
While I do wish that she’d put some other tracks on this album – Tears of Joy, Jailhouse Tears, and Well, Well, Well are the three that instantly come to mind – I will admit that my main problem with the album is a personal one. I like her strongly roots-based music the best, and I’ll probably never like albums like West and World Without Tears as much as her earlier work simply because she’s branched out. It’s a personal thing for me, and as I hope I’ve made clear, I do think that West is just as much a piece of art as everything else Lucinda’s given us. I hope her career continues to blossom and that her newfound happiness remains; she’s created so many masterpieces of pain and darkness that she deserves love and peace. And if we get some happy love songs out of it eventually, all the better of us, too.
An artist is responsible for 50% of the artistic experience.
The viewer, reader or listener brings the other half.
Average art is nice, pleasant, entertaining and decorative.High art on the other hand engages the viewer, reader or listener to contemplate life.
To recall old memories and events and see them in a different light.
It makes you thinks. Sometimes it makes you face those
uncomfortable moments from long ago that need to be resolved.
It lets you see and question current life in different ways.
High art is interactive with the mind.
“West” is high art.Often the detours in life provide us with the lessons we need.
Views and understanding of events that exist beyond the realm of words.
Events that can only be experienced.Lucinda’s real gift is her ability to bring these events to life in the mind of the listener.
With her words, her music, her voice, “West” lets you see.Years ago the spirits of art and creativity and the muses of inspirations around Andalusia
smiled at the wonderment of life in the bright eyes of a young girl playing in the fields.
It is obvious they continue to smile upon her.i’ve had 2 thorough go throughs with west and by the end of the 2nd last
night it was obvious my feelings are going to evolve as i become more familiar with the studio material. for the better.i had the opposite take from a previous reviewer in that the 7 songs i had heard her do over the past year or so, i didn’t think the material was that strong. mind changed. there is some amazing stuff here. another thing that struck me was, someone mentioned there were some *bad* songs here (come on, wrap my head around that) and another poster’s favorite was wrap my head around that. if the record can evoke that wide range of feelings and opinions, i’d say this may indeed be a great record.
of the songs i had heard i was pretty sure unsuffer me would be my favorite. and i like it here even better that the 2 performances and 3 auds i’ve got. but, for me, wrap your head around that is just amazing. the underlying funk rhythm with the sort of rap cadence reminds me a little of blondie’s *rapture*. the slight change in tempo on where is my love (faster) and what if (slower) from the performances i’ve seen have enhanced both songs. of the songs i have not heard, everything has changed is just fabulous. i’m also digging the violin fills on alot of the songs. a nice change from the sparseness of wwt.
i was not all that excited for radio city, after the cd finished last night, i went and got a ticket for the egg. this should be fun.
To be fair, does anything compare to seeing her do these songs live? I understand the criticisms re: comparing live versions of the songs (I saw her do them with the full band — old band — last year and acoustic with Doug) but it is like comparing apples and oranges. The demos have a much more organic feel than the production of Willner. I like what he’s done with the scratch vocals by adding something different.
I’ve also heard all but one of these songs live previously . I thought (and still think) a lot of the songs themselves are quite strong. Unfortunately, I’m kind of in the camp of the New York Times review who panned the production…there’s just too much going on and it overwhelms the simplicty of the songs. Organs, violins, etc….it’s overkill. When you’ve got talent like Tony Garnier and Doug just let them play. I have the Best Buy version (man, I hate having to patronize places like that), and the two raw demo tracks are much stronger than the full production versions. Of course your mileage may vary.
The good news is I imagine Lu will be playing the tracks in a way much closer to the demo versions (unless Doug starts playing violin), and they should be as strong or stronger than they were in the prior live incarnations.
Plus, there should be a heck of a start to another album already ready to go.
I was thinking about the “live” versions, having the various Dime etc. stuff, and also thinking about any of her other live material compared to the polished work she releases on record. ALL of her stuff live unleashes her in a way rarely captured on CD — World Without Tears comes close to having that “raw” feeling translated into a studio.
When you get someone like Hal Willner producing you get this marvelous sonic sheen to the material. It’s unlike anything she’s done before isn’t it?
I’ve seen her quote that with the re-release of Car Wheels she’s competing with herself. I have a suggestion: release the demos as a CD instead of Best Buy, the Japan CD with two more demos and the indie outlets with two more demos. That’s six. The rest of it has to exist. PJ Harvey did this with Rid Of Me and 4-Track Demos. I doubt sales would suffer. I realize this isn’t going to happen soon but like with the original Car Wheels sessions I am hoping the demos will see the light of day.
I think that is a good idea revenire! Maybe she will do it if they release a 5.1 version. Anyway, I think the raw and produced versions of the songs would be a nice contrast to one another.
@i’ve lost it wrote:
I think the raw and produced versions of the songs would be a nice contrast to one another.
I made a CDR of WEST replacing the album versions of Rescue, Where Is My Love, Unsuffer Me, and Everything Has Changed with the demo versions. Like those tracks, but LOVE the demos even more. More tension.
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