SPIN

7

• SPIN Rating:7 of 10

• • Listen:

    Spotify

Release Date: March 1, 2011
Label: Lost Highway

"Good luck findin' your buttercup," Lucinda Williams sings with a sigh to begin her tenth album, setting a good-riddance-to-wishy-washy-boyfriends tone that applies to many of these dozen songs. Title aside, Williams isn't inclined to count blessings here -- not with so many damn fools to suffer. Blessed feels more like a country-blues toast to the pissed-off side of interpersonal relations, set to coproducer Don Was' sturdy barroom roots rock. And Williams calls 'em like she feels 'em, offering lines like "You already fucked me dry" in a voice to match. Three decades of happy-woman blues, and she still hasn't found what she's looking for.