Essence | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 5, 2001 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 50:58 | |||
Label | Lost Highway | |||
Producer |
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Lucinda Williams chronology | ||||
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Essence is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, released on June 5, 2001, by Lost Highway Records. [3] The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 28, selling approximately 44,500 copies in its first week. [4] By 2008, it had sold 336,000 copies in the U.S. [5]
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. [6]
Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 82/100 [3] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [7] |
Blender | [8] |
Chicago Sun-Times | [2] |
Christgau's Consumer Guide | A− [9] |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ [10] |
Los Angeles Times | [1] |
Q | [11] |
Rolling Stone | [12] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [13] |
Spin | 8/10 [14] |
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. [3] 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 [12] and Spin contrasting the "halting, spare" presentation with its predecessor's "giddy, verbose" one. [14] 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. [7]
The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau found it "imperfect" but still praised Williams' artistry, saying "[she] is too damn good to deny." [9] Salon regarded the album as "an emotional mess of a masterpiece". [15] 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". [10] Q listed Essence as one of the best 50 albums of 2001. [16]
Year | Nominated work | Category | Result | Ref. |
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2002 | Essence | Best Contemporary Folk Album | Nominated | [6] |
" Essence" | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance | Nominated | ||
" Get Right With God" | Best Female Rock Vocal Performance | Won |
All tracks written by Lucinda Williams. [17]
Additional musicians:
Chart (2001) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums ( ARIA) [18] [19] | 59 |
New Zealand Albums ( RMNZ) [20] | 47 |
Norwegian Albums ( VG-lista) [21] | 29 |
Swedish Albums ( Sverigetopplistan) [22] | 47 |
UK Albums ( OCC) [23] | 63 |
US Billboard 200 [24] | 28 |