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Williams Back On Track, Mostly, With Raw CD

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By CURTIS ROSS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2008

Updated:

The clanging, crashing guitars that kick off opening track "Real Love" here not only sound great, but they also come as a huge relief. The self-consciously arty "West" (2007) suggested that Williams was shifting her focus from the barroom to the drawing room, with Hal Willner's airless production smothering the proceedings with stuffy good taste.

"Little Honey," much of it, anyway, reeks of cigarettes and spilled beer and ZZ Top on the jukebox, raunchy sex and broken hearts. It's not as great as 1998's "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," but it's the loosest, rawest Lucinda we've heard in years.

"Tears of Joy" is a nasty R&B slow dance. Williams' voice is a forceful caress, an assured seduction. "Honey Bee" gets even dirtier, working a relentlessly pounding hard rock groove.

"Well Well Well" drags Southern gospel through the mud, while next cut "If Wishes Were Horses" is an irresistibly languorous plea for forgiveness.

If you want a rock-solid, no-filler disc, skip immediately to the disc-ending remake of AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top." Williams has back-loaded the album with lengthy trawls and so-so experiments that never quite get off the ground.

"Jailhouse Tears," the obligatory Elvis Costello duet (he's the T-Pain of Adult Alternative), tries hard to be raucous but doesn't quite make it. "The Knowing" has a nice horn line, but it's not nice enough to justify it being too long by half.

Still, even the lesser material contains some of that rough-hewn charm that was so lacking on "West." "Little Honey" may not be a stone classic, but it's still a decided return to form.

Download this: "Tears of Joy"

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