In its elegiac tone, its gauzy production and its sense of impending finality, The Ghosts... is Williams' Time Out Of Mind, the album on which Bob Dylan pondered his own mortality.
Williams gives her songs more room to breathe than ever before, opening up vast, cinematic visions of the highway and land that inspired them.
The Ghosts Of Highway 20 is vast, thoughtful and profound.
As if to spite an industry with which she’s forever wrestled, 2014’s Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone and the new The Ghosts of Highway 20 rank among the best works of her career.
After releasing one of the best and boldest albums of her career with Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone, Williams goes from strength to strength with The Ghosts of Highway 20, and it seems like a welcome surprise that she's moving into one of the most fruitful periods of her recording career as she approaches her fourth decade as a musician.
The Ghosts of Highway 20 never delves into what could have very easily become self-involved drivel. Williams avoids that pitfall by creating or relaying the truth of her own vulnerabilities through the lives of those characters on which each song focuses.
It's a bit of a frustrating listen. The compositions are absolutely stunning, they're played beautifully, the lyrics are strong...and then you have Lucinda slurring her words, sounding more than a little drunk throughout.
I can't help but feel that I'd love this album if it was performed by literally anyone else. I understand her vocal style plays into the whole country/americana "down to earth", "real America" aspects of this album, but damn, if I want to listen to ... read more
I honestly just couldn't bear through the album for multiple listens. It is a very lengthy record with production that just isn't really interesting. The lyrics were the only thing that kept me interested but I don't find myself listening to this again. It's just not for me.
#8 | / | Magnet |
#12 | / | Slant Magazine |
#15 | / | American Songwriter |
#24 | / | PopMatters |
#32 | / | Sound Opinions |
#34 | / | Uncut |
#62 | / | Fopp |