Lucinda Williams:
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 Lucinda WilliamsEssence Release Date: 2001 06 05 Label: Lost Highway Records Rating:  |
Between her well-documented determination to retail full control of her music and the plain-spoken willfulness of her best-known songs, Lucinda Williams is practically the working definition of a strong woman you do not want to mess with, but she reveals a very different side of her musical personality on her sixth album, Essence. Subtle and often stark, Essence is an unusually quiet and frequently downbeat set that depicts a fragile emotional vulnerability which rarely makes its presence felt in Williams' music; there's an unadorned longing in songs like "Blue" and "Lonely Girls" that's new and deeply affecting, and the leaf-in-the-breeze quaver of Williams' voice on "I Envy the Wind" is as heart-rending as anything she's ever committed to tape. But while a blue mood dominates Essence, this isn't an album about the blue funk of heartbreak, but a chronicle of the search for transcendence over sorrow in our lives, as her characters look for a path out of isolation ("Out of Touch"), try to find answers through faith ("Get Right With God"), or reconcile love with the desires of the flesh ("Essence"). As a songwriter, Williams has long shown a knack for charting the human heart and mind with intelligence and economy, and Essence finds her at the peak of her form; the delicacy of this music does not speak of weakness, but of the passion and bravery it takes to bare one's soul. And while Williams has gained a certain infamy for her obsessive perfectionism in the studio, the quality of her work speaks for the wisdom of her decision-making process, and Essence proves how well she understands the art of recording; producing in collaboration with Charlie Sexton (Tom Tucker and Bo Ramsey also contributed), Essence sounds full and rich even in its quietest moments, and her sweet-and-sour voice blends with the arrangements with subtle perfection. Those hoping for another dose of the bluesy roots rock of Car Wheels on a Gravel Road may be disappointed, but if you want to take a deep and compelling look into the heart and soul of a major artist, then you owe it to yourself to hear Essence. Mark Deming, All Music Guide
Tracks:
| Title | Composer | Time | |
| 1 | Lonely Girls | Williams | 4:02 |
| 2 | Steal Your Love | Williams | 3:17 |
| 3 | I Envy the Wind | Williams | 3:15 |
| 4 | Blue | Williams | 3:55 |
| 5 | Out of Touch | Williams | 5:30 |
| 6 | Are You Down | Williams | 5:28 |
| 7 | Essence | Williams | 5:54 |
| 8 | Reason to Cry | Williams | 3:44 |
| 9 | Get Right With God | Williams | 4:19 |
| 10 | Bus to Baton Rouge | Williams | 5:53 |
| 11 | Broken Butterflies | Williams | 5:40 |
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