Consumer Guide Album

Lucinda Williams: Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone [Highway 20, 2014]
You'll never guess--a double album that would be punchier as a single! It doesn't help that the 20 tracks average over five minutes apiece, so that the philosophical grist of "Temporary Nature (of Any Precious Thing)," for instance, leaches what value its no-love-without-loss wheeze has as the song refuses to end. My strategy, which I've made a reality in my iTunes folder, is to finish off the top five of disc one with--somewhat less sure-shottedly--the bottom four of disc two. The political to the personal. Nine-minute cover to wander out on. Title: Down to the Bone. B+