Lucinda Williams – Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road (2024) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Lucinda Williams - Lucinda Williams Sings The Beatles From Abbey Road (2024) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz] Download

The album eatures 12 Beatles songs that include classic hits such as ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ and ‘Something’. Williams and her band also take on beloved deeper tracks such as ‘I’m So Tired’, ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’, and ‘Yer Blues’. Being raised on the blues in the South, the latter is a song Williams was clearly meant to sing. Recorded at The Beatles’ legendary studio in London, this collection serves as volume 7 of her celebrated ‘Lu’s Jukebox’ series and is the first volume in almost four years.The latest installment of Lu’s Jukebox—Lucinda Williams’s interpretation of songs by The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and others—finds the Americana legend taking on some of the Beatles’ most iconic standards as well as a few deeper cuts. Covering songs that multiple generations know like the backs of their hands can present as a losing battle, but Williams’s voice brings such a signature perspective that it in no way feels like karaoke. Her “Don’t Let Me Down” may be missing the urgency of the original’s chorus, but she also slides into the classic like it’s a pair of favorite old jeans—great fit, worn velvety soft in all the right places, and as comfortable as a warm hug. The guitar is sunshine bright here, and throughout. It doesn’t matter that a totally game Williams can’t hit the no-no-no high notes of Paul McCartney circa 1964; her take on the 12-bar blues of “Can’t Buy Me Love” is pure joy. At 71, she’s also in a position to expose new facets of The Beatles’ catalog, given that the band’s eldest members were only on the cusp of 30 when they broke up. An interpretation of John Lennon’s hallucinogen-fueled “Rain” replaces the psychedelic, Indian-accented timbre of The “Paperback Writer” B-side with a more earthbound perspective: There is understood knowledge and experience when Williams proclaims, “When it rains and shines/ It’s just a state of mind.” Having suffered a stroke in recent years that forced her to re-learn to walk and play guitar, she also brings new meaning to the familiar salve that is “Let It Be,” which can so easily come across as a hokey cover. With a slight echo effect on her voice, Williams turns “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” into more of a ragged, rugged rocker, honoring the spirit of Eric Clapton’s uncredited, lightning-streak guitar. Her big, glorious cover of “With a Little Help from My Friends” hews closer to Joe Cocker’s definitive version rather than the inherent oompah goofiness of the Ringo Starr-led version from Sgt. Pepper’s. “I’m Looking Through You” fully leans into the country tendencies of the Rubber Soul track, and Williams doesn’t hesitate to let every crag in her voice be exposed against the buttery-smooth production, helmed by her husband and manager, Tom Overby, and longtime collaborator Ray Kennedy. “I’ve Got a Feeling” swings, and “I’m So Tired” sounds less dreamy and more weary than Lennon’s. In a rare lyrical tweak, Williams changes the pronouns of “Something”; musically, she simplifies George Martin’s lush bridge to something more elemental. Lucinda WIlliams Sings The Beatles from Abbey Road is truly for her fans, but also worth a casual listen. – Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist:

1-1. Lucinda Williams – Don’t Let Me Down (03:27)
1-2. Lucinda Williams – I’m Looking Through You (03:11)
1-3. Lucinda Williams – Can’t Buy Me Love (02:23)
1-4. Lucinda Williams – Rain (02:53)
1-5. Lucinda Williams – While My Guitar Gently Weeps (04:51)
1-6. Lucinda Williams – Let It Be (03:57)
1-7. Lucinda Williams – Yer Blues (02:57)
1-8. Lucinda Williams – I’ve Got a Feeling (03:50)
1-9. Lucinda Williams – I’m So Tired (01:59)
1-10. Lucinda Williams – Something (03:08)
1-11. Lucinda Williams – With a Little Help from My Friends (04:27)
1-12. Lucinda Williams – The Long and Winding Road (03:03)