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Track Listings
| Disc: 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Buttercup | |||
| 2. I Don't Know How You're Livin' | |||
| 3. Copenhagen | |||
| 4. Born To Be Loved | |||
| 5. Seeing Black | |||
| 6. Soldier's Song | |||
| 7. Blessed | |||
| 8. Sweet Love | |||
| 9. Ugly Truth | |||
| 10. Convince Me | |||
See all 12 tracks on this disc
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| Disc: 2 | |||
| 1. Buttercup | |||
| 2. I Don't Know How You're Livin' | |||
| 3. Copenhagen | |||
| 4. Born To Be Loved | |||
| 5. Seeing Black | |||
| 6. Soldier's Song | |||
| 7. Blessed | |||
| 8. Sweet Love | |||
| 9. Ugly Truth | |||
| 10. Convince Me | |||
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See all 12 tracks on this disc
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Product Description
Review
You don’t often hear a track that speeds up these days. Studio techniques and protocols now seem to make such things impossible. The title-track of this album speeds up, though. And that, I would guess, comes from the fact that it, and the tracks surrounding it, were recorded with exuberance and passion, as well as expertise.
Mind you, any musician would get off on the sort of material Lucinda Williams turns out. Far from prolific (since 1979 she’s managed about one release every three or four years), what she does write is shot-through with grit, acute perception and heart. And that’s just the lyrics. Her melodies and the songs’ structure are beautifully shaped and balanced. As well as her refined rock and blues sensibilities, she has one foot in the world of country music. It’s a pity that crowd’s writers don’t pay more attention to the depth of her work, as it could help Nashville recover some credibility.
Don Was produced this. He must have loved it as much as the musicians did, and he obviously got it as nothing in the production interferes with the songs. In Soldier’s Song, where she sings the parallel stories of a serving soldier and his wife and child at home, the same chords, in the same sequence, go round and round, allowing the lyric to develop and reach its inevitable conclusion. Sweet Love does the same. No need for embellishment when what’s being sung about is so powerful.
Instrumental embellishment is here, though. Lucinda likes to rock out as much as any, and her band can do it. The opening track, Buttercup, is a joy. Elvis Costello also gets stuck in, admirably with guitar on Seeing Black and duetting vocally on Kiss Like Your Kiss.
Some find it hard to get past Lucinda’s slurred vocals. That makes as much sense as ignoring Bob Dylan for the same reason. In 2002, Time magazine named Williams America’s Best Songwriter. It might seem a silly thing for them to have said, but listening to this album it is hard to come up with any alternative.
--Nick Barraclough
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Just make sure you buy the de luxe edition - the album itself is fine, if a little flat in places. But then you listen to the Kitchen Tapes (demos) disc, and it all comes to life, and the power of these slight, introspective songs washes over you and it's pure magic. Somehow when the band kicks in on the main album the bleak, blue-collar, middle-aged dirty reality is lost in all that slick, shiny backing.
I just wish Lucinda and the record company had the courage to ditch the "proper" sessions and release the demos on their own. It would have been an instant classic, along the lines of Johnny Cash's American Recordings.
I just wish Lucinda and the record company had the courage to ditch the "proper" sessions and release the demos on their own. It would have been an instant classic, along the lines of Johnny Cash's American Recordings.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
No doubt about it - this is Lucinda's best studio album since the high water mark of World Without Tears. I feel quite happy listening to it all the way through, which I admit I found difficult with West or Little Honey. They frustrated me with their lack of commitment and vague production values. This one's clean and consistent in comparison.
The songs this time round inhabit the soundscape much better, and there's a nice southern Gospel swagger to several of the songs - Born To Be Loved and Awakening in particular. It's a grower for sure, but some songs have instant appeal - Seeing Black and Soldier's Song being my favourites so far. Great Hammond playing throughout, and some cracking guitar parts from Elvis Costello to boot. Incidentally its nice to see him getting recognition for his edgy playing - something I've long admired.
Overall though it's clear Lucinda is still in the same songwriting groove she started with West, and the power rests firmly with the lyrics rather than the melody, but this album has really been a nice surprise - the best of her 'mature' output for sure. I just wish I'd got the Deluxe Version, because the demo versions sound more my bag. Expense, always expense.
The songs this time round inhabit the soundscape much better, and there's a nice southern Gospel swagger to several of the songs - Born To Be Loved and Awakening in particular. It's a grower for sure, but some songs have instant appeal - Seeing Black and Soldier's Song being my favourites so far. Great Hammond playing throughout, and some cracking guitar parts from Elvis Costello to boot. Incidentally its nice to see him getting recognition for his edgy playing - something I've long admired.
Overall though it's clear Lucinda is still in the same songwriting groove she started with West, and the power rests firmly with the lyrics rather than the melody, but this album has really been a nice surprise - the best of her 'mature' output for sure. I just wish I'd got the Deluxe Version, because the demo versions sound more my bag. Expense, always expense.
29 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Lucinda Williams is not the most prolific of recording artistes. In fact this is only her 12th album release since 1979. It has been suggested that this is due, in part, to her pursuit of perfection which has made her a darling of the critics but which has not brought her great commercial success.
"Blessed" is her first album since the relatively disappointing "Little Honey" released in 2008. Produced by the legendary Don Was (Stones, Dylan, Elton John, Michelle Shocked etc)this album is a tour de force and, with all songs penned by Williams, her best offering since "World Without Tears" from 2003.
There is an aching quality to Lucinda's voice which enables her to convey bittersweet emotions and passionate brooding quite unlike any comparable singer songwriter. She knows what suits her voice and she can sure write the songs.
Just listen to her laid back southern drawl caress the lyrics of the title track "Blessed" with a mesmeric chanting lilt, Hammond B3, 12 string and piano. It is a track of such powerful atmosphere and reminiscent of The Band or Jackson Browne.
Don Was's great virtue is to let Lucinda's voice carry the songs and despite a great band delivering a distinctive country blues sound it is Lucinda's show. The country rock number "Buttercup" proves that Was has got it right. So too with "Born To Be Loved" a late night number underpinned by the sensuous B3 and a lyrical guitar; with Lucinda's voice taking centre stage this is a spellbinding journey into the blues.
There is so much to commend this album: the scorching Elvis Costello guitar break on "Seeing Black"; the exquisite "Kiss Like Your Kiss" in waltz time; the beauty of the plaintive ballad "Sweet Love" with Lucinda's voice an instrument of emotional perfection.
Don Was has produced an album with subtle shades of country rock and blues. With the guitars of Greg Leisz and Val McCallum, the drums of Butch Norton and the B3 and piano of Rami Jaffee there is a powerful bluesy band that complements the aching beauty of Williams' voice without ever threatening to dominate it. Some other producers should take note, this is the way to do it.
"Blessed" is her first album since the relatively disappointing "Little Honey" released in 2008. Produced by the legendary Don Was (Stones, Dylan, Elton John, Michelle Shocked etc)this album is a tour de force and, with all songs penned by Williams, her best offering since "World Without Tears" from 2003.
There is an aching quality to Lucinda's voice which enables her to convey bittersweet emotions and passionate brooding quite unlike any comparable singer songwriter. She knows what suits her voice and she can sure write the songs.
Just listen to her laid back southern drawl caress the lyrics of the title track "Blessed" with a mesmeric chanting lilt, Hammond B3, 12 string and piano. It is a track of such powerful atmosphere and reminiscent of The Band or Jackson Browne.
Don Was's great virtue is to let Lucinda's voice carry the songs and despite a great band delivering a distinctive country blues sound it is Lucinda's show. The country rock number "Buttercup" proves that Was has got it right. So too with "Born To Be Loved" a late night number underpinned by the sensuous B3 and a lyrical guitar; with Lucinda's voice taking centre stage this is a spellbinding journey into the blues.
There is so much to commend this album: the scorching Elvis Costello guitar break on "Seeing Black"; the exquisite "Kiss Like Your Kiss" in waltz time; the beauty of the plaintive ballad "Sweet Love" with Lucinda's voice an instrument of emotional perfection.
Don Was has produced an album with subtle shades of country rock and blues. With the guitars of Greg Leisz and Val McCallum, the drums of Butch Norton and the B3 and piano of Rami Jaffee there is a powerful bluesy band that complements the aching beauty of Williams' voice without ever threatening to dominate it. Some other producers should take note, this is the way to do it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
She's turned up the volume
Lucinda Williams has made some of my favourite albums of all time, especially her 1998 CD Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Reader
End of the Road
I have an almost complete set of Lucinda albums and this is one of the best. If you are going to buy it, whatever you do, buy the deluxe edition. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Tufnell Paul
Up There with the best
This album s, perhaps a bit of a slow burner. There are perhaps a couple of tracks which stand out at first and these get under your skin enough to keep replaying the album. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Dr. J. Crawford
Lucinda is Blessed twice over
2CDs, one studio recorded and one done at home. Exactly the same songs, however, which is rather a shame. Still, you don't really expect two albums for the price. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Stephen M. Bedford
A tiny bit undecided!
Bought a couple of the deluxe versions of Blessed, one for me and one for a friend. Unlike 'Car wheels on a Gravel Road' 'Live at the Fillmore' 'West' and 'Little Honey' this one... Read more
Published 13 months ago by David Arnell
Brilliant
Quite simply the best album I have heard this year, can't stop playing it. In my opinion her best too
Published 13 months ago by smartie
Another weak and dissapointing album
I am partially modifying my review about Blessed, which I wrote one year ago. I still rate this album with 3 stars, but a retrospective listening of some Lucinda Williams's works... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Adrian Gonbar
it's lucinda, she's on top form, so buy it
I've loved Lucinda williams since Passionate Kisses and I've bought all of her Cds since then so I'm hardly unbiased. Read more
Published 13 months ago by singgs
Lucinda is in the groove...and happy !
Lucinda has over the last dozen years produced a great body of work, and this cd is the latest in a superb line. Read more
Published 13 months ago by rockinjohnny12
Totally addictive
Brilliant album, better than ever with beautiful production and fantastic songs. Can't praise it enough. 'Kiss like your kiss' is pure poetry and one of Lucinda's best ever. Read more
Published 13 months ago by J. Hextall
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