Lucinda Williams has made a career out of listening to other musicians. On Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, the songwriter’s classic 1998 record, she sings, “We’d put on ZZ Top and turn ‘em up real loud,” as if it’s a mission statement. Williams has also made a run of six “jukebox” albums since 2021 covering Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, the Beatles and more. On her new record, World’s Gone Wrong, Williams sings about listening to Miles Davis and putting Slim Harpo on the jukebox. She also questions Dr. John’s old adage, singing “Maybe he was wrong / And I’ve been in the right place all along.”
World’s Gone Wrong is Williams’ 16th studio album and the fourth to feature the word “world.” But we’re a far cry from the “sweet old world” she lost herself in back in 1992 and more squarely in the “world without tears” she decried on her 2003 record about heartbreak. Williams is pissed off, and rightly so. In today’s Trumpian new world order, not enough artists are pushing back and using their voices in protest. Williams is pushing back by crafting a rollicking blues-rock record.
The album opens with its title track, telling the story of two working-class people who are having trouble making ends meet. Williams, now 72, sings of their travails over ragged guitars (Doug Pettibone and Marc Ford) and blues organ (Rob Burger) in a voice that is weary. As the world bears down on the couple, she reminds us that “It’s getting hard to keep it together / They need each other now more than ever.”
It’s obvious that Williams sees a darkness and much of World’s Gone Wrong is a cri de cœur for a planet that is going through a difficult period. On a cover of Bob Marley’s “So Much Trouble in the World,” Williams vamps through the verses assisted by the powerhouse backing vocals of Mavis Staples.
Not all the songs are about commiseration. On the rip-snorting “How Much Did You Get for Your Soul,” Williams takes aim at sell-outs and dirty politicians, while on “Something’s Gotta Give,” Williams acknowledges the weight that has been pushing us all down as she sings, “There’s a heaviness to these days / A burden on a shoulder / I think we’ve lost our way.”World’s Gone Wrong comes on the heels of a year of discord in the United States and Williams is fed up. She has always listened to others. Now it’s time for us to listen to Williams and her warnings before our sweet old world is swallowed whole by evil.
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