The deluxe edition of Lucinda William’s 2001 album, Blessed, was accompanied by a companion CD called The Kitchen Tapes. It features the same 12 songs, in the same order, but recorded as demos by Williams sitting in her kitchen with a guitar and a tape recorder.
Some of those songs ended up with similar acoustic treatments on the final album, but others (like today’s SOTD) became hard-edged rockers, highlighted by excellent supporting guitar work by Elvis Costello.
Lucinda Williams released two albums over the past five years that received consideration for my decade-s-far list.
One was this year’s Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, a double album that I am still getting to know after a few weeks. If I’d lived with it for a bit longer before compiling the list, it might have had a chance. It’s a grower, like most good albums.
Top Ten Songs of 2011 – #5
Resuming my countdown of my top ten songs of last year, I arrive at a poignant track from Lucinda Williams latest album, Blessed.
Blessed came out early in 2011 and has been somewhat off my radar over the past several months as I listened to other new releases, but today’s SOTD, ‘Copenhagen,’ was an easy call for my top five.
I’ve already reviewed Lucinda Williams’ 2011 album, Blessed, so this will be more of a look-back. As I mentioned in last week’s R.E.M. post, it’s often only months after the fact that I know how I really feel about an album.
Without exception, Lucinda Williams’ albums have aged well. In fact, they are the musical equivalent of one of those movies that I need to see twice to really get. I liked just about every Coen Brothers movie after one viewing and loved them after two. Williams is in the same boat.
Befriending Lucinda Williams might be hazardous to your health. Her albums are littered with songs about loved ones lost to suicide and disease. She mourns beautifully.
Williams’ newest release, Blessed, features two such tracks. The first is the wistful, poetic ‘Copenhagen,’ describing the moment she learned, while traveling abroad, about her manager’s sudden death. The second is ‘Seeing Black,’ an angry response to the suicide of her friend Vic Chesnutt.
Elsewhere, in ‘Soldier’s Song,’ she contrasts the experiences of an enlisted man in a war zone with that of his wife and child back home. It doesn’t end well for the soldier.
Meet Me In Montauk 