Essence

After being treated like a leprous hayseed by the music industry for years, alt-folkie Lucinda Williams is finally getting her due. Critics tripped over their pens to praise her 1998 southern-fried gem, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road—a few people even bought it, too. On Essence, Williams’ sad-eyed musings are tangled up in an even darker shade of blue. It’s not easy to hear her wounded lilt poke at exposed nerves with a kitchen knife, but as her lust, jealousy, and disappointment collide, it’s a wreck you simply can’t turn away from.