Emotional pain has always been lyrical fodder for Alt-Country queen Lucinda Williams. No surprise then that the recent death of her mother and a messy break-up with a boyfriend would spark a fire underneath her to venture out west to California (hence the title) and pen a bunch of new tracks. Imagine my surprise however when, after excitedly getting my hands on it, West turns out to be the first below average release in Williams' near 30-year career.

West doesn't start out misfiring. Opener "Are You Alright?" is one of the best songs she's ever written. Same goes for "Fancy Funeral," "Unsuffer Me" and "Rescue." All four of these songs are gut-wrenchingly powerful and bruising to the heart. But the rest of West sadly, is tedious, meandering and highly and unusually cringe inducing lyrically. When Williams sings on "Come On" "Dude, you're so fired. Shut up, I'm not inspired" it's easy to hear that she ain't kidding (and quite possibly referring to producer Hal Willner). It certainly doesn't help that he left her out to dry on over half of these recordings, most of them going over the five minute mark (one song is even over nine minutes long, was Willner asleep at the boards or what?). If you have trouble staying awake through slow moving albums, stay the hell away from this record unless you like seeing the inside of your eyelids - or your valium isn't cuttin' it lately. I can appreciate Williams trying a change of scenery for inspiration, but I have some advice that may help her future releases. Stay out east, it seems to be a lot more influential than one could have possibly imagined.