Victoria Williams
Loose
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After dwelling in obscurity for years, Victoria Williams is finally getting her due. When Sweet Relief: A Benefit for Victoria Williams, the star-studded tribute album, was issued last year to popular and critical acclaim, many more people became aware of her as a songwriter than had ever heard of her as a recording artist. After that, Geffen reissued her wondrous, idiosyncratic 1987 debut, Happy Come Home, and Mammoth bought the rights to her ill-fated 1990 Rough Trade release, Swing the Statue. Topping it all, Loose, her first new album in four years, is perhaps her finest moment. On Loose, Williams, as singer and songwriter, traverses many genres.
Read More Country, folk, blues, Dixieland jazz, gospel, R&B, pop and rock are showcased along with lyrics inspired by some of the best of the Southern literary tradition – Walker Percy, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Miller Williams. Combined, those elements create a music that is familiar yet new, with its composer firmly at the helm as both band leader and lead guitarist. Williams achieves this with help from myriad friends, including the Jayhawks' Mark Olson (her husband) and Gary Louris, Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner, R.E.M.'s Mike Mills and Peter Buck, the Williams Brothers, Van Dyke Parks and producer Paul Fox. Of the album's 16 tracks, 13 were written by Williams. Linked by the themes of hope and possibility, they range from the dream pop of "Century Plant," replete with cellos and chimes, to the horn-fueled "You R Loved," the Jerome Kern-flavored "Harry Went to Heaven" and the psychedelic film-noir travelogue "Hitchhiker's Smile." Loose also features Williams' fine rendition of "Crazy Mary," which Pearl Jam performed on Sweet Relief. Of the covers, Williams' gorgeous pop reading of "Wonderful World" – Louis Armstrong's signature tune – stands out; it is performed without irony or artifice. Loose is the record Williams has always threatened to make. She may make better ones in the future, but this will be the standard by which her future efforts will be judged. (RS 696) THOM JUREK |
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