Lucinda Williams Good Souls Better Angels 2LP

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the July/August 2020 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Rolling Stone's The 50 Best Albums of 2020 - Rated 47/50!

Three-time Grammy Award winner Lucinda Williams unabashedly takes on some of the human, social and political issues of our day with her boldest and most direct album to date, Good Souls Better Angels. During the course of her celebrated four-decade, pioneering career Williams has never rested on her laurels as she continues to push herself as a songwriter. On Good Souls Better Angels, she has much she needs to get out.

In 2014 and 2015, Williams released two critically acclaimed double albums back to back with Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone and The Ghosts Of Highway 20, respectively. Both releases found her experimenting with arrangements, vocals, song structure and personal subject matter. On Good Souls Better Angels, Williams changes course and chooses to forgo the personal and narrative-based songcraft that has become synonymous with her name and instead speaks to some of the injustices permeating our society. The new songs cut straight to the core with frank and honest commentary on domestic abuse ("Wakin' Up"), the constant barrage of news ("Bad News Blues") the dangerous, quick to judge and convict aspects of social media ("Shadows & Doubts) and the haunting reality of the "Man Without A Soul".

Williams recorded Good Souls Better Angels backed by her remarkable, long time band, featuring Butch Norton (drums), Stuart Mathis (guitar) and David Sutton (bass). The rock-solid unit propels the music with both fire and finesse, particularly on the raw blues number "You Can't Rule Me", which kicks off the album with equal parts attitude and swing.

Good Souls Better Angels also features some of Williams' most intimate and up front vocals on record. She addresses the pain of depression on the achingly beautiful "Big Black Train" and tenderly delivers a poignant song of hope with "When The Way Gets Dark". She encourages us to push forward on the path of promise and perseverance on the deeply soulful and moving album closer "Good Souls".

Good Souls Better Angels marks the first time Williams' husband/manager Tom Overby is credited as a co-writer on many of the new songs. The album was co-produced by Williams, Overby and Ray Kennedy, who last worked with Williams on her 1998 landmark album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road.

The vinyl LP version includes 5 exclusive bonus tracks not available on any other format.

Drawing as much from punk as roadhouse blues, Lucinda Williams' loud and unsparing new album is some of the heaviest, most inspiring music of her career...These 12 songs are tough and haunted, built on simple blues progressions that twist and pull until they fray.

The tough 'You Can't Rule Me' sets a defiant tone that Williams returns to later on 'Bone of Contention.' Williams drawls her hot-caramel vocal over a dense, relentless bass pattern from David Sutton, gut-punching drums from Butch Norton, and urgent, textural guitar rhythms and leads from Stuart Mathis... Sutton really stands out on the nightmare groove of 'Wakin' Up,' a chilling song about spousal abuse, a theme that runs through Lucinda's work. Her genius is to balance the terror and anger, underscored by the insistent repetition of lines that fall like successive blows, with solace and a glimmer of hope.

"Reuniting with co-producer/engineer Ray Kennedy, Williams serves up lean, slow burn arrangements while the recording highlights the gnarled crunch of Stuart Mathis' electric guitar, David Sutton's earthy bass throb, and Lucina's grainy rasp. Williams relies on her two most singular gifts here: her raw, emotional vocals and the unadorned honesty of her songwriting. Co-written with Tom Overby, these spiky songs veer much more toward her fierce blues side than mournful country. Whether she's confronting topical issues like rabid politics gone wrong in 'Man Without A Soul' or female empowerment in 'Wakin' Up,' Lucinda summons her full strengths. The new single, 'Big Black Train,' simmers with experience and regret, as Williams taps the title as metaphor for depression in a scorching, acoustic crawl. From the blunt emancipation of 'You Can't Rule Me' and the ferocious Kiss-off rocker 'Bone of Contention' to the ominous grind of 'Pray the Devil Back to Hell,' Lucinda rumbles with angry urgency on this provocative set. - Greg Gaston, The Absolute Sound, July/August 2020

The performances are all vibrant and intense - a cover of Greg Garing's 'Down Past the Bottom' is simply terrifying - putting Williams' famously breathy voice right in your ear. She reunited with co-producer Ray Kennedy for the first time since the 1998 watershed Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. It was worth the wait.