Essence (Lucinda Williams album)

Last updated
Essence
Essence - Lucinda Williams.jpg
Studio album by
Lucinda Williams
ReleasedJune 5, 2001
Genre
Length50:58
Label Lost Highway
Producer
Lucinda Williams chronology
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
(1998)		Essence
(2001)		 World Without Tears
(2003)

Essence is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, released on June 5, 2001, by Lost Highway Records. [3] The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 28, selling approximately 44,500 copies in its first week. [4] By 2008, it had sold 336,000 copies in the U.S. [5]

Contents

A critical and commercial success, the album earned Williams three Grammy Award nominations in 2002: Best Contemporary Folk Album, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the title track, and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the track "Get Right With God", which she won. [6]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 82/100 [3]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Blender Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Chicago Sun-Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
Christgau's Consumer Guide A− [9]
Entertainment Weekly B+ [10]
Los Angeles Times Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [11]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [12]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [13]
Spin 8/10 [14]

Essence was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 82, based on 11 reviews. [3] Reviewers observed a departure from Williams' similarly acclaimed 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road , with Rolling Stone citing the "willful intimacy" in Essence's music [12] and Spin contrasting the "halting, spare" presentation with its predecessor's "giddy, verbose" one. [14] AllMusic similarly stated "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. [7]

The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau found it "imperfect" but still praised Williams' artistry, saying "[she] is too damn good to deny." [9] Salon regarded the album as "an emotional mess of a masterpiece". [15] Entertainment Weekly wrote "Lucinda Williams doesn’t merely wallow in suffering. She savors it like a glass of your finest Bordeaux", and called it her "folkiest, gentlest album" and "a steamy slow-crawl — southern humidity as music — that plays into her strengths as the Joan of Dark of the alt-country set". [10] Q listed Essence as one of the best 50 albums of 2001. [16]

Awards

Grammy Awards nominations for Essence
YearNominated workCategoryResultRef.
2002 Essence Best Contemporary Folk Album Nominated [6]
"Essence" Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Nominated
"Get Right With God" Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Won

Track listing

All tracks written by Lucinda Williams. [17]

  1. "Lonely Girls" – 4:01
  2. "Steal Your Love" – 3:14
  3. "I Envy the Wind" – 3:12
  4. "Blue" – 3:52
  5. "Out of Touch" – 5:25
  6. "Are You Down" – 5:24
  7. "Essence" – 5:50
  8. "Reason to Cry" – 3:39
  9. "Get Right With God" – 4:16
  10. "Bus to Baton Rouge" – 5:50
  11. "Broken Butterflies" – 5:41

Personnel

Additional musicians:

Charts

Chart performance for Essence
Chart (2001)Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA) [18] [19] 59
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [20] 47
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [21] 29
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [22] 47
UK Albums (OCC) [23] 63
US Billboard 200 [24] 28

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References

  1. 1 2 Nichols, Natalie (June 3, 2001). "Rawer This Time Around". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  2. 1 2 Houlihan, Mary (June 10, 2001). "Lucinda Williams, 'Essence' (Lost Highway)". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved June 16, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 "Reviews for Essence by Lucinda Williams". Metacritic . Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  4. ↑ Martens, Todd (June 14, 2001). "Staind Fends Off Radiohead, St. Lunatics At No. 1". Billboard . Retrieved 22 February 2007.
  5. ↑ Caulfield, Keith (February 8, 2008). "Ask Billboard: Williams' Wild 'West'". billboard.com. Billboard. Retrieved 9 February 2008.
  6. 1 2 "Artist: Lucinda Williams". The Recording Academy. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
  7. 1 2 Deming, Mark. "Essence – Lucinda Williams". AllMusic . Retrieved August 10, 2005.
  8. ↑ "Lucinda Williams: Essence". Blender (1): 107. June–July 2001.
  9. 1 2 Christgau, Robert. "Lucinda Williams: Essence". RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  10. 1 2 Browne, David (June 8, 2001). "Essence". Entertainment Weekly . No. 599. p. 74. Archived from the original on April 16, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Lucinda Williams: Essence". Q (178): 125. July 2001.
  12. 1 2 Berger, Arion (May 24, 2001). "All the Small Things". Rolling Stone . No. 869. p. 86. Archived from the original on March 4, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
  13. ↑ McGee, David; Miles, Milo (2004). "Lucinda Williams". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). London: Fireside Books. pp.  875–876. ISBN   0-7432-0169-8.
  14. 1 2 Weisbard, Eric (July 2001). "Lucinda Williams: Essence". Spin . 17 (7): 125. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
  15. ↑ McLeese, Don (May 31, 2001). "Lucinda Williams' psychosexual murk". salon.com . Salon Media Group. Retrieved 12 November 2011.
  16. ↑ "The Best 50 Albums of 2001". Q (185): 60–65. December 2001.
  17. ↑ Lucinda Williams (2001). Essence (booklet). Lost Highway Records.
  18. ↑ "Lucinda Williams chart history" . Retrieved 2021-10-02– via imgur.com.
  19. ↑ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 302.
  20. ↑ "Charts.nz – Lucinda Williams – Essence". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
  21. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – Lucinda Williams – Essence". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
  22. ↑ "Swedish Charts > Lucinda Williams". Sverigetopplistan . Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  23. ↑ "Official Charts > Lucinda Williams". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 2021-10-02.
  24. ↑ "Billboard 200 > Lucinda Williams". Billboard . Retrieved 2021-10-02.
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