Good Souls Better Angels

AlbumApr 24 / 202012 songs, 59m 46s
Blues Rock Americana
Popular Highly Rated
8.0 / 10

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.

C

Williams finds the strength to pull herself out of the despair “down past the bottom, where the devil won’t go,” with the help of the "Good Souls Better Angels" of the title.

8 / 10

Lucinda Williams is at her firebrand best on Good Souls, Better Angels

Lucinda Williams's father was the poet Miller Williams, a protégé of Flannery O’Connor, and the Louisiana singer-songwriter’s music career has had more in common with the slow-burning literary world. She released her debut album in 1979 and didn’t make a commercial breakthrough until Car Wheels on a Gravel Road in 1998. More recently she’s been a prolific writer at the crossroads where country, blues and rock meet.

8.0 / 10

Her music has always been rooted in the bittersweet blues, but never before has Williams been this much of a daredevil,…

The American singer-songwriter has gone back to her bluesy roots for a record full of fire and brimstone

Lucinda Williams is incapable of sounding anything less than 100-percent engaged and sincere.

8 / 10

The devil has met his match, and it's the 67-year-old Queen of Southern Gothica. On "Pray the Devil Back to Hell," Americana icon Lucinda Wi...

9 / 10

Man I got a rightTo talk about what I seeWay too much is going wrongRight in front of meThese lines, from

85 %

Album Reviews: Lucinda Williams - Good Souls Better Angels

“Bad news on my left/ Bad news on my right/ Bad news in the morning/ Bad news at night/ In my refrigerator/ Bad news on the sink/ On my typewriter/ Bad news in my drink/ Bad news on the walls/ All over the floor/ Down the hall/ Knocking at the door/ Bad news in the mail/ Bad news on my phone/ Bad news on my trail/ Following me home/ No matter where I go/ Can’t seem to get away from it … ”

A restoring curative for a fearful world, which beautifully balances vitriol and solace

Sublimating anger through song. Album review by Mark Kidel

8 / 10