 Label: Lost Highway
Sound/Style: rough-edged and moody alternative country
Singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams famously wrote Mary Chapin Carpenter's 1992 country smash "Passionate Kisses." Admittedly, the lighthearted song wasn't one of Williams' most representative works. Today, it reads like a virtual Hallmark card compared to the singer's dour offerings of recent years. Her latest CD, West, is centered on the fallout of failed romance, though not in a typical pity party sort of way. Most of the 13 tracks on West don't so much wallow as probe deep recesses of pain, and lament the frustrated desire for wholeness. While topics like these could easily prompt a cry to the Creator, signs of spiritual search are few. Instead, Williams explores a jagged landscape that is at turns aching, vindictive and introspective. Melody is in short supply, though her penchant for richly detailed and original lyrics makes this a more intriguing ride than it might be in the hands of a lesser tunesmith.
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