Essence (Lucinda Williams album)
Essence is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, released on June 5, 2001, by Lost Highway Records. The album debuted on the "Billboard" 200 at No. 28, selling approximately 44,500 copies in its first week. By 2008, it had sold 336,000 copies in the U.S. A critical and commercial success, the album earned Williams three Grammy Award nominations in 2002; Best Contemporary Folk Album, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the title track, and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the track "Get Right with God", which she won. Critical reception. "Essence  was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 82, based on 11 reviews. Reviewers observed a departure from Williams' similarly acclaimed 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road", with "Rolling Stone" citing the "willful intimacy" in "Essence"s music and "Spin" contrasting the "halting, spare" presentation with its predecessor's "giddy, verbose" one. AllMusic similarly stated "those hoping for another dose of the bluesy roots rock of "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" may be disappointed, but if you want  to take a deep and compelling look into the heart and soul of a major artist, then you owe it to yourself to hear "Essence". "The Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau found it "imperfect" but still praised Williams' artistry, saying "[she] is too damn good to deny." "Salon" regarded the album as "an emotional mess of a masterpiece". "Entertainment Weekly" wrote "Lucinda Williams doesn’t merely wallow in suffering. She savors it like a glass of your finest Bordeaux", and called it her "folkiest, gentlest album" and "a steamy slow-crawl — southern humidity as music — that plays into her strengths  as the Joan of Dark of the alt-country set". "Q" listed "Essence" as one of the best 50 albums of 2001. Track listing. All songs written by Lucinda Williams Personnel. Additional musicians: