World Without Tears | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 8, 2003 | |||
Genre | Rock and roll, roots rock, Americana, alternative, folk rock | |||
Length | 59:53 | |||
Label | Lost Highway | |||
Producer | Mark Howard, Lucinda Williams | |||
Lucinda Williams chronology | ||||
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World Without Tears is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, released on April 8, 2003, by Lost Highway Records. The album debuted at No. 18 on the Billboard 200, selling 54,000 copies in its first week. [1] By 2008, it had sold 415,000 copies in the U.S. [2]
The album was a widespread critical and commercial success, and earned Williams two Grammy Award nominations in 2004: Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the track "Righteously". [3]
Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 87/100 [4] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Blender | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Entertainment Weekly | A [7] |
Los Angeles Times | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Mojo | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Q | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Rolling Stone | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Spin | A [12] |
Uncut | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Village Voice | A− [14] |
World Without Tears was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 87, based on 18 reviews. [4] Spin magazine's Robert Levine believed Williams had returned to "the painful sensuality of the specific" on World Without Tears, [12] while Will Hermes from Entertainment Weekly said the "profoundly carnal" record sounded "noisier and randier" than 2001's Essence . [7] Robert Hilburn deemed it "a rock 'n' roll workout" in his review for the Los Angeles Times , writing that its edgiest songs sounded "close to the raw, disoriented feel" of the Rolling Stones' 1972 album Exile on Main St. [8] entertainment.ie 's review called it "dark, sleazy and impeccably rock'n'roll" while declaring Williams was "making some of the most essential roots-rock music around." [15]
According to music essayist Kathryn Jones, World Without Tears found Williams continuing her Americana, alternative, and folk-rock sounds on songs that reflected her life since moving from Nashville to Los Angeles. [16] In The Village Voice , Robert Christgau said while the songs were merely "pretty good" rather than "great," Williams compensated with "lowdown, dirty, smoky" music that relied on grooves and riffs. He compared it to a Sue Foley album but with better lyrics, particularly on "Those Three Days" and "Sweet Side." [14] Rolling Stone journalist Karen Schoemer was less impressed. She praised the music's "gorgeous amalgams of country, blues and Southern rock," but was disappointed in how relentlessly bleak the lyrics were, finding them lacking her past work's "wounded innocence" and "sweetness." [11]
Year | Nominated work | Category | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2004 | Word Without Tears | Best Contemporary Folk Album | Nominated | [3] |
"Righteously" | Best Female Rock Vocal Performance | Nominated |
All tracks written by Lucinda Williams. [17]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Fruits of My Labor" | 4:41 |
2. | "Righteously" | 4:36 |
3. | "Ventura" | 4:37 |
4. | "Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings" | 4:40 |
5. | "Overtime" | 3:52 |
6. | "Those Three Days" | 4:53 |
7. | "Atonement" | 5:47 |
8. | "Sweet Side" | 3:34 |
9. | "Minneapolis" | 4:03 |
10. | "People Talkin'" | 5:05 |
11. | "American Dream" | 4:30 |
12. | "World Without Tears" | 4:11 |
13. | "Words Fell" | 4:11 |
Total length: | 59:53 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
14. | "Buick Blues" (Version One)" | 2:45 | |
15. | "Hang Down Your Head" | 3:19 | |
Total length: | 65:57 |
Chart (2003) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (ARIA) [18] [19] | 80 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [20] | 81 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [21] | 93 |
Irish Albums (IRMA) [22] | 41 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [23] | 40 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [24] | 24 |
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [25] | 24 |
UK Albums (OCC) [26] | 48 |
US Billboard 200 [27] | 18 |
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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