Pages tagged “lost highway”

Uneven self-help record leaves listeners undernourished

I’ve never understood the fuss over Ryan Adams’ prolificacy. Each of his nine previous albums has its own distinct identity, from his 2000 solo debut Heartbreaker to last year’s Easy Tiger, and music fans are far richer having had the opportunity to see so many sides of Adams; to be able to sample so many varied sounds to love or hate.

Lucinda gets her joy back

Lucinda Williams has a great laugh—it’s a joyful sound to hear on the aptly titled Little Honey, the 10th album in her three-decade career. A sweet sense of renewal imbues Williams’ latest work, which encompasses all the elements of her eclectic catalog—from her stark early sets Ramblin’ (1979) and Happy Woman Blues (1980) to her 1988 self-titled breakthrough to last year’s textural West, co-produced with Hal Willner (Lou Reed, Bill Frisell). But not since her masterpiece, 1998’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, has Williams dug so deep and come up with an album that brims with such varied, impeccable writing. Aided by loose-limbed playing from her band Buick 6, some notable party guests, and a voice full of everything from righteous gusto to hard-won wisdom, Little Honey is Lucinda Williams at her best.