The new album from Lucinda Williams — Good Souls Better Angels (2020)– is a far cry from her 1992 album Sweet Old World. Of course, the world has changed a lot since 1992 and so has Williams. But her new album, veering at times more toward punk music and blues than country, still reflects her great talent.
Recorded in Nashville with Williams’s band Buick 6, the album Good Souls Better Angels is from a powerful singer and strong person asserting herself amidst a crazy world. In the opening blues track, Williams proclaims, “You Can’t Rule Me,” and you believe her.
Her energy comes through on such songs as “Wakin’ Up,” about an abusive relationship, and “Man Without a Soul” (“You bring nothing good to this world”) about Donald Trump.
But she also reveals softer moments in some of the highlights of the album, including “Big Black Train” and the closing track “Good Souls.”
Many reviewers love the new album. Pitchfork calls it an “unsparing new album” with “some of the heaviest, most inspiring music of [Williams’s] career.” Others have compared it unfavorably with her best work. AllMusic reports that Good Souls Better Angels is “full of fierce, engrossing music from a great band with a mesmerizing frontwoman, but as fine as that is, it comes from someone who is capable of better work.”
I’m still listening to the album more and more. And although at this moment I do not yet know if it will become my favorite Lucinda Williams album, it is the album for our current era. Williams captures the anger, insanity, and, yes, beauty, of our times in a powerful album. And I’m not sure you can ask for more than that.
What do you think of Good Souls Better Angels? Leave your two cents in the comments.
