Eargasm
LUCINDA WILLIAMS >> WEST.
LOST HIGHWAY 2007 

Louisiana girl Lucinda Williams has come back on the scene for yet another foray into matters of the heart, albeit a greasy and seedy affair strewn with 13 lilting tapestries sure to get you in the mood for grits, gravy, and sweet-thistle-pie in the bedroom. 

Lucinda was the product of a hellacious lost marriage, and her father, the poet and English professor Miller Williams, continually kept them on the road, from trailer park to worse. Regardless of the path, it served her well. After years of honing her fucked-up-folkie-southern-tell-it-like-it-is songwriter craft, she finally broke through in a big way with Grammy winner Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. Now here with West, she eschews the former bigger productions and instead keeps it simple, like the straight shooter we love in her. Deep within these songs, it's easy to wonder if she's been dumped and broken time and again, the ol' crash-and-burn any of us who believe in chasing hearts knows damn well. Lucinda winds her way through the entanglements of it all, and along the way manages to open a couple cans of vengeful whoop-ass with one tune in particular, "Come On," serving as a wicked rant to a failed lover who can't get her over the edge in the bedroom. Other gems are the amusing rant "Unsuffer Me," perhaps on the surface an ode to bondage gone astray, and metaphorically, relative to the confining chains we put on each other in the petty throes of jealousy, all while pining for that which should not be held captive. 

No, West is not the best starting point if you're not familiar with Lucinda's work, but if you do some homework, and are willing to take a few risks along the way, this disc may indeed change everything for you. At the least, there'll inevitably be Tabasco in the bedroom of your mind, and if you haven't got that, you're a long way from where you need to be. By Nathaniel Riverhorse Nakadate