Williams does a U-turn into rocker style

By Robert Hilburn
Los Angeles Times

Lucinda Williams follows her successful pop folk-country loneliness CD with a pop rock album about despair. Gannett News Service

The tendency in commercial pop is to repeat what works, which is why many singer-songwriters would have followed an album as widely heralded as Williams' 1998 "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" with more of the same finely crafted, country-folk narratives about loneliness and desire.

Williams, however, used the energy and confidence she gained from the response to "Car Wheels" to make even better albums — works that touch on new levels of emotion and craft. In moving from the formal storytelling approach of "Car Wheels" to more compact and personal writing on "Essence" in 2001, she shifted the instrumental tone to a slightly more pop approach.

Now she delivers "World Without Tears," which at its most extreme edges is close to the raw, disoriented feel of the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street." At its core, "World Without Tears" (in stores this week) looks at heartache and despair that rest so deep inside that even tears don't begin to ease the pain.

The first thing we hear on the album is a quivering note of tremolo guitar, maybe the most forlorn sound in all of pop.

On the opening "Fruits of My Labor," Williams' voice feels more naked and raw than ever as she gives us a portrait of a woman who lives with velvet curtains on the windows to keep out the "bright and unforgiving light."

The tempo picks up on "Righteously," but the lyrics still speak of the search for some shelter in a stormy relationship. The fiery electric guitar underscores the desperation of the lyrics.

"Those Three Days" conveys the soul-jarring loss of confidence and self-esteem of being abandoned after a brief, rapturous affair.