Essence was highly anticipated coming after a three-year gap from her lauded Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is the 1998 album by singer-songwriter and guitarist Lucinda Williams, her fifth professional release. Issued by Mercury/Polygram Records, it was recorded in Nashville and Canoga Park, California...

and the critical reviews reflect that. Although positive, none rate the album as highly as her breakthrough. Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

, who raved about Car Wheels, called the album "imperfect" but still praised her artistry saying "[she] is too damn good to deny." Reviewers noted the difference in tone between the two albums with Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

citing the "willful intimacy" of the music while Spin

Spin (magazine)

Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...

contrasted it's "halting, spare" presentation with Car Wheels "giddy, verbose" one. And, in a review posted by Salon

Salon.com

Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...

the album was called "an emotional mess of a masterpiece".

Track listing

1. "Lonely Girls"
2. "Steal Your Love"
3. "I Envy the Wind"
4. "Blue"
5. "Out of Touch"
6. "Are You Down"
7. "Essence"
8. "Reason to Cry"
9. "Get Right With God"
10. "Bus to Baton Rouge"
11. "Broken Butterflies"

Musicians

Personnel on the album include Tony Garnier

Tony Garnier (musician)

Tony Garnier is an American bassist , best known as an accompanist to Bob Dylan, with whom he has played since 1989...

 and Charlie Sexton

Charlie Sexton

Charles Wayne Sexton is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known for the 1985 hit Beat's So Lonely and as the guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band from 1999 to 2002 and since 2009...

, best known as part of Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

's live backing band at the time. The album also features session drummer Jim Keltner

Jim Keltner

James Lee "Jim" Keltner is an American drummer known primarily for his session work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists...

.