| "Essence" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Lucinda Williams | ||||
| from the album Essence | ||||
| Released | 2001 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 5:51 | |||
| Label | Lost Highway | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Lucinda Williams | |||
| Producer(s) |
| |||
| Lucinda Williams singles chronology | ||||
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"Essence" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams. It was released in 2001 as the first single from her sixth album, Essence (2001).
The song earned Williams a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2002. [1]
A review of the song from AllMusic stated: "Williams kicks up a little mud here with a chunky guitar riff tempered by a dash of dark menace, especially when paired with the opening attention grabber, 'Baby, sweet baby/You're my drug/Come on and let me taste your stuff.' A nasty sexual air permeates the track, enhanced by Williams' breathy vocal, imbued with a sinister swagger as the band obliges with a steadily pulsing low-down groove. The mood lightens considerably in the chorus as Williams' voice, bolstered by high harmony backing vocals from Gary Louris, rises up with the determination of a stalker, digging in her heels, resolved to wait her lover out." [2]
Spin called the song a "midtempo rocker that harks back to the stuff by the Divinyls or Concrete Blonde. [3] Salon called it "the boldest anthem she's ever recorded, not merely because of lyrical explicitness such as 'You're my drug, come on and let me taste your stuff', and 'Please come find me and help me get fucked up', 'Essence' is less a song about seducing an object of desire than a song about lust's voracious hunger, an arousal so strong it all but obliterates that object. It's a song that strips away every last layer of protective bark from an impulse that will not be denied." [4]
NPR described the song as a "pheromone daydream, the epitome of Williams's erotic expressionism." [5] Country music website Holler listed "Essence" as No. 11 of the best Lucinda Williams songs, writing "The toxic elixir of a no-good partner seeps through this dark and delirious grunge tune. Completely overtaken by this person, Lucinda ideates their presence with palpable yearning; their absence seems to result in a potentially lethal chemical imbalance. She likens the wanting to an overdue drug dosage from an addict: 'Whisper my name/Shoot your love into my vein'." [6] The song peaked at No. 9 on Billboard's Adult Alternative Airplay chart. [7]
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Grammy Award | Best Female Pop Vocal Performance | "Essence" | Lucinda Williams | Nominated | [1] |
| Chart (2001) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Adult Alternative Airplay [7] | 9 |
Lucinda Gayl Williams is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums, Ramblin' on My Mind (1979) and Happy Woman Blues (1980), in a traditional country and blues style that received critical praise but little public or radio attention. In 1988, she released her third album, Lucinda Williams, to widespread critical acclaim. Regarded as "an Americana classic", the album also features "Passionate Kisses", a song later recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter for her 1992 album Come On Come On, which garnered Williams her first Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1994. Known for working slowly, Williams released her fourth album, Sweet Old World, four years later in 1992. Sweet Old World was met with further critical acclaim, and was voted the 11th best album of 1992 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of prominent music critics. Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it 6th on his own year-end list, later writing that the album, as well as Lucinda Williams, were "gorgeous, flawless, brilliant".
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