The album title WORLD’S GONE WRONG makes it clear what it’s about. The song of the same name underlines it again. At the center are a car salesman and a nurse whose lives are buckling under the weight of the present. He is burnt out, she is close to depression, while outside the door, the vacancy rate is increasing, but so is homelessness. In the song, the couple manages to escape into dance, but of course it is only temporary. The final track shows how important such hope is. “We’ve Come Too Far To Turn Around” is a warm, touching gospel about the power of resilience recorded with Norah Jones.
It is these poles between which Lucinda Williams’ 16th studio album moves. How do you sing about a country that is disintegrating? And, more importantly, what can you do about it? The songwriter refrains from giving an overly precise answer, but numerous songs can be read as comments at the moment. “Somethings Gotta Give” tells of the darkness, anger and pain of these days, while “How Much Did You Get For Your Soul” tells of the venality. Together with Mavis Staples, Williams covers Bob Marley’s “So Much Trouble In The World”, while “Freedom Speaks”, sung from the perspective of freedom, says: “Stand up and fight!”
Musically, Williams stays close to the robust Americana sound that she has been perfecting for decades: dry drums and crunchy guitars leave plenty of space for her brittle, haunting voice. The album was once again produced by Tom Overby and Ray Kennedy, who give the songs a raw, immediate live character. And if that sounds too depressing: Williams hasn’t forgotten the joy of escapism that only a song can offer, listen to it in the wistful, floating bar tune “Low Life”. “This is a low life. Have a hurricane,” she tells us here as she throws her coins into the jukebox to listen to Slim Harpo. By the way, a hurricane is a rum cocktail that is particularly popular in New Orleans; it warms and calms you.
This review appears in Musikexpress 2/2026.