Sweet Old World | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | August 25, 1992 | |||
Genre | Roots rock | |||
Length | 45:27 | |||
Label | Chameleon | |||
Producer | Gurf Morlix, Dusty Wakeman, Lucinda Williams | |||
Lucinda Williams chronology | ||||
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Sweet Old World is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, released on August 25, 1992, by Chameleon Records.
A roots rock album, Sweet Old World was met with widespread critical acclaim upon release, and remains one of Williams best reviewed works. She produced the album with Dusty Wakeman and Gurf Morlix, the three of them having previously produced her earlier album, Lucinda Williams (1988). Emmylou Harris covered the title song on her album Wrecking Ball (1995).
On April 28, 2017, Williams performed the album in its entirety at Minneapolis' First Avenue nightclub; the live recording was released to commemorate Sweet Old World's 25th anniversary in August. [1] She re-recorded the album more to her liking and released it later that year as This Sweet Old World , which earned further critical acclaim. [2]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
Christgau's Consumer Guide | A [4] |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ [5] |
Q | [6] |
Rolling Stone | [7] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [8] |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 8/10 [9] |
Sweet Old World was voted the 11th best album of 1992 in The Village Voice 's Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of prominent music critics. [10] Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it 6th on his own year-end list, [11] later writing that the album was "gorgeous, flawless, brilliant [with] short-story details ('chess pieces,' 'dresses that zip up the side') packing a textural thrill akin to local color". [12] In a contemporary review, Audio magazine said Sweet Old World proves Williams is "a riveting writer and performer whose apparent simplicity is merely the entranceway to a rewarding artist of depth", [13] while Stereo Review wrote "She delivers her searing lines without artificial sentiment or extraneous embellishment, just a wrenching directness that nourishes the spirit and knows no detour to the heart." [14]
In a retrospective review for The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), David McGee and Milo Miles later wrote Williams was a "damned determined artist" on Sweet Old World, in which the perspectives of her previous work--"adult, Southern, female, sensual but neurotic"—were stronger and more focused. [8] AllMusic's Steve Huey said it was just as good as her 1988 self-titled album, calling it "a gorgeous, elegiac record that not only consolidates but expands Williams' ample talents." [3] Like her self-titled album, Bill Friskics-Warren wrote in The Washington Post , Sweet Old World showcased Williams' "sharply drawn odes to desire and loss", sung with a "grainy drawl" and backed against a "lean, bluesy roots-rock" sound. [15]
All tracks written by Lucinda Williams, except where noted. [16]
Chart (1992) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (ARIA) [17] | 134 |
US Heatseekers ( Billboard ) [18] | 25 |
Lucinda Gayl Williams is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums, Ramblin' on My Mind (1979) and Happy Woman Blues (1980), in a traditional country and blues style that received critical praise but little public or radio attention. In 1988, she released her third album, Lucinda Williams, to widespread critical acclaim. Regarded as "an Americana classic", the album also features "Passionate Kisses", a song later recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter for her 1992 album Come On Come On, which garnered Williams her first Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1994. Known for working slowly, Williams released her fourth album, Sweet Old World, four years later in 1992. Sweet Old World was met with further critical acclaim, and was voted the 11th best album of 1992 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of prominent music critics. Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it 6th on his own year-end list, later writing that the album, as well as Lucinda Williams, were "gorgeous, flawless, brilliant".
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Robert Thomas Christgau is an American music journalist and essayist. He began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became an early proponent of musical movements such as hip hop, riot grrrl, and the import of African popular music in the West. Christgau spent 37 years as the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice, during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music, and was a visiting arts teacher at New York University. CNN senior writer Jamie Allen has called Christgau "the E. F. Hutton of the music world – when he talks, people listen."
Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper The Village Voice and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year absence from the Voice, each year from 1974 onward. The polls are tabulated from the submitted year-end top 10 lists of hundreds of music critics. It was named in acknowledgement of the defunct magazine Jazz & Pop, and adopted the ratings system used in that publication's annual critics poll.
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Gurf Morlix is an American singer-songwriter and music producer.
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"Something About What Happens When We Talk" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams. It was released in 1993 as the fourth single from her fourth album, Sweet Old World (1992).