Customer Reviews:
  Please Don't Say "This Is Her Best" July 10, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Disclaimer: I am new to Lucinda's own albums, so maybe I shouldn't be reviewing this just yet before hearing a few more. But it does seem like everything else has been steering me right here, with everybody telling me to proceed no further before checking her out. So now *please* tell me that West is some kind of fly in the ointment. She sounds totally rasped out, like Stevie Nicks with a really bad cold. Please tell me that she's in a songwriting slump also. I find myself in accord with Big Jim's one-star review below - these songs don't feel like stories, let alone lyrics - there's simply too much line repetition to communicate much except dull emotion. If this were a blues album it would be one thing, but clearly it's not. And how can these be called melodies when all they do is hover around one or two notes in practically every song, showing off very little of her range. (Somebody please tell me that she displays some vocal range somewhere else.)
Coming from a pretty good appreciation of lady singer/songwriter/interpreters like Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, and others with similar talents, even ones with narrow but beautiful instruments like Rickie Lee Jones, I was hoping to add a little bit of spice to the rack - but this album is a huge let-down. When I learned that Hal Willner, Bill Frisell and Jim Keltner were major contributors to West, I figured that I would at least be intrigued by *some* of the tracks - sorry - even after several listenings that's not happening. I really do like Lucinda's one track on the 2001 MJH tribute album Avalon Blues: A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt, but then again I liked ALL of that 5-star gem. Somebody *please* confirm for me that this is *not* the best way to be introduced to Ms. Williams on a large scale. How much longer should I listen to my trusty sources when West is what they are telling me is a "must have".
Very disappointed.... July 8, 2007
that's that I was when I heard this record. Even in concert, Lucinda just seems like such a drag anymore. I know, her mom died recently, but this whole record is such a downer, and her voice just drones on and on and on.
Give me Lucinda's self titled CD any day over her last 2 records...
 Good; not great July 7, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
She has a couple of excellent tracks on this CD. I especially like "Are You Alright", but the overall work seems uninspired. I find it a bit of a downer, in the main (and, yes, I understand the inspiration.) I recognize her artistry as a songwriter, but her voice on this CD -- after a while, its nasal quality begins to grate; she doesn't do that as well as Tracy Chapman.
Alt-country emo?? June 18, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
No, really--I love Lucinda Williams. I've liked her earlier albums and I like her voice; it's a nice change in a music genre that often seems to idealize baby-voiced vocalists like Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith, and Iris DeMent (all of whom are fine singers, of course, but it's unusual to hear a female singer with Williams' deep, husky, voice).
I found this album musically monotonous. Really monotonous. Like, sleep-inducing. I could chalk that up to personal taste and forgive it if more of the songs had lyrics that were interesting or meaningful beyond fairly standard pop fare. Too many of these, as much as I hate to think it, were warmed-over rhymes and old themes with no new insight.
Get Car Wheels instead.
 Still the Angel of Ensanguined Love June 9, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this CD a week ago, and yes, Lucinda Williams is still the greatest living songwriter (though I might say she possibly currently shares that honor with Ryan Adams). The most visceral portrayal of heartbreak in verse and song ever, ever...Lucinda you are still the angel of ensanguined love.
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