Lucinda Williams: World’s Gone Wrong

An album review of the Americana legend’s fighting fit record of rage; her 2026 return to mega form, arriving just in time — for these times!

Lucinda Williams

World’s Gone Wrong

Highway 20 Records marketed and distributed by Thirty Tigers

There’s a string of wonderful Lucinda Williams albums from 1988 to 2007 that is not only hard to argue with, it almost cannot be beaten — we are talking Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Dylan, Neil Young. It’s in that lineage. And yet, of course, it’s its own thing entirely — her best work is angry and passionate and vulnerable and frightened, and full and real. Sometimes even frightening, as that voice turned towards slur and unhinged yelp. The live version of Dylan’s Masters of War with the Charles Lloyd Quartet, for example. Or indeed most of the brilliant 2018 collaboration album with the jazz legend from 2018, Vanished Gardens, which felt like a fight.

After a post-COVID burst of covers records and tributes to some of her favourite artists (Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, The Beatles), and following a fantastic memoir, this new album feels like the best we’ve had from Lucinda since 2007’s West; it feels like one of her most Dylan-aping records too (there’s a clue in the title for a start). It feels like one of those rebirth/comeback albums of urgency, just as Dylan best offered in 1997 with Time Out Of Mind, and then in 2020 with Rough And Rowdy Ways. Dylan has often said he’d give anything to write like Lucinda Williams by the way, so I’m referencing that — not suggesting she’s ‘nearly as good’ as Bob, more that they have a mutual love for each other’s work, and in the ebb and flow of long careers, Lucinda feels like she’s offering the sort of ‘comeback’ that Bob has mounted more than once.

And, as with those two Dylan albums, guiding lights in some way, I’m sure, World’s Gone Wrong takes the blues as a stylistic template, and allows churchy organ (Rob Burger) to merge with the guitar lines of Marc Ford and Doug Pettibone. At times (Punchline) they conjure late-period Robbie Robertson, all low grumbling snarl and the unfurling of something so tightly coiled. A little lick piercing the arrangement here and there (Freedom Speaks).

It’s just always a joy to hear Lucinda angry. She wonders if God forgot the punchline. She fights hard against the incredulity of the current political situation, “Evil has come to play/You can feel it everywhere” and some of that Mavis Staples-esque stoicism (We’ve Come To Far To Turn Around). Actually, it’s Norah Jones that joins Williams to sing that one, to close out the record, but Staples is also here, on a cover of Bob Marley’s So Much Trouble In The World, picked to fit the theme no doubt, but a reminder of the depth of Marley’s catalogue; a less obvious choice than many would make.

The anger, the weariness, the worry, the wisdom — it’s all here. All fighting together to be heard, and to help to raise awareness, and other voices, and to express the household rage of today. But there’s also just that feeling of Williams’ super-great storytelling throughout, right from the devastating opener, The World’s Gone Wrong. That, and the immediate followup, Something’s Gotta Give, clearly signpost the lyrical ambition and preoccupation of the record, and Williams is helped to put these themes in place by the fantastic singing of country/gospel singer, Brittney Spencer.

The record also reminds us how much Williams loves music and literature, with references to other artists, including song titles that come from novels (Sing Unburied Sing) and lyrics that reference other (great) musicians. Again, a thing Dylan has often done, and something they share. Here she namedrops Miles Davis, Dr John, and Slim Harpo among others. And with the one-two of Low Life and How Much Did You Get For Your Soul we can really feel the spirit of prime Lucinda Williams, the songwriter, and song deliverer — World’s Gone Wrong is the rallying cry. Her band is fantastic throughout, and the anger is palpable and real. The music electric and Williams ever the conduit; all of this just flowing through her — the accumulation of a lifetime of music listening and music giving.

Low Life, in particular, feels like a song so many would wish they could write, and only Lucinda could deliver. Mickey Raphael, the legendary harmonica player and Willie Nelson’s right hand man across decades, adds his signature touch to this song too. Which, of course, is exquisite. But even with these guests, and great playing from her regulars, it is always in support of Lucinda. And Lucinda operates in service to her songs.

She’s back in a way that hasn’t been felt in a while, but has been hinted at across some of the recent efforts. World’s Gone Wrong instantly joins Sweet Old World, Car Wheels, Essence, and World Without Tears as a Top 5 all time Lucinda Williams record. And right now it feels like the best, most important, and vital thing she’s ever done. You really cannot ask for more.