Sweet Old World

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite web |last=Huey |first=Steve |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/sweet-old-world-mw0000082196 |title=Sweet Old World – Lucinda Williams |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=August 10, 2005}}

| rev2 = Christgau's Consumer Guide

| rev2Score = A{{cite book |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xVQbszFuEGMC&pg=PA335 |chapter=Lucinda Williams: Sweet Old World |access-date=August 3, 2015 |page=335 |year=2000 |title=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s |publisher=Macmillan Publishers |isbn=0-312-24560-2 |title-link=Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s}}

| rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev3Score = B+{{cite magazine |last=Altman |first=Billy |url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,312037,00.html |title=Sweet Old World |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |location=New York |page=60 |issue=139 |date=October 9, 1992 |access-date=May 12, 2011 |archive-date=March 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180305062914/http://ew.com/article/1992/10/09/sweet-old-world/ |url-status=dead}}

| rev4 = Q

| rev4Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite journal |title=Lucinda Williams: Sweet Old World |journal=Q |location=London |page=141 |issue=75 |date=December 1992}}

| rev5 = Rolling Stone

| rev5Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite magazine |last=Jurek |first=Thom |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/sweet-old-world-19970129 |title=Lucinda Williams: Sweet Old World |magazine=Rolling Stone |location=New York |page=68 |issue=638 |date=September 3, 1992 |access-date=July 20, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071002000200/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/lucindawilliams/albums/album/92799/review/5943772/sweet_old_world |archive-date=October 2, 2007}}

| rev6 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev6Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book |last1=McGee |first1=David |last2=Miles |first2=Milo |chapter=Lucinda Williams |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/875 875–876] |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |year=2004 |publisher=Fireside Books |location=London |edition=4th |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |title-link=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide}}

| rev7 = Spin Alternative Record Guide

| rev7Score = 8/10{{cite book |chapter=Lucinda Williams |editor1-last=Weisbard |editor1-first=Eric |editor2-last=Marks |editor2-first=Craig |year=1995 |title=Spin Alternative Record Guide |publisher=Vintage Books |location=New York |isbn=0-679-75574-8 |title-link=Spin Alternative Record Guide}}

}}

Sweet Old World was voted the 11th best album of 1992 in The Village Voice{{'}}s Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of prominent music critics.{{cite news |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres92.php |title=The 1992 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York |date=March 2, 1993 |access-date=August 3, 2015}} Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it 6th on his own year-end list,{{cite news |last=Christgau |first=Robert |date=March 2, 1993 |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/deans92.php |title=Pazz & Jop 1992: Dean's List |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York |access-date=August 3, 2015}} later writing that the album was "gorgeous, flawless, brilliant [with] short-story details ('chess pieces,' 'dresses that zip up the side') packing a textural thrill akin to local color".{{cite news |last=Christgau |first=Robert |date=June 12, 2001 |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/lucinda-01.php |title=Encore From a Utopia |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York |access-date=August 3, 2015}} In a contemporary review, Audio magazine said Sweet Old World proves Williams is "a riveting writer and performer whose apparent simplicity is merely the entranceway to a rewarding artist of depth",{{cite magazine |work=Audio |page=154 |date=December 1992 |volume=76 |issue=12 |location=New York |title=Sweet Old World |last=Tearson |first=Michael}} while Stereo Review wrote "She delivers her searing lines without artificial sentiment or extraneous embellishment, just a wrenching directness that nourishes the spirit and knows no detour to the heart."{{cite magazine |last=Nash |first=Alanna |title=Lucinda Williams: Straight to the Heart| magazine=Stereo Review |page=94 |volume=57 |issue=12 |date=December 1992}}

In a retrospective review for The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), David McGee and Milo Miles later wrote Williams was a "damned determined artist" on Sweet Old World, in which the perspectives of her previous work--"adult, Southern, female, sensual but neurotic"—were stronger and more focused. AllMusic's Steve Huey said it was just as good as her 1988 self-titled album, calling it "a gorgeous, elegiac record that not only consolidates but expands Williams' ample talents." Like her self-titled album, Bill Friskics-Warren wrote in The Washington Post, Sweet Old World showcased Williams' "sharply drawn odes to desire and loss", sung with a "grainy drawl" and backed against a "lean, bluesy roots-rock" sound.{{cite news |last=Friskics-Warren |first=Bill |date=June 24, 1998 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/archive/lifestyle/1998/06/24/southern-to-the-roots/35605d96-f372-4c27-92ad-b0b99cc964a3/?resType=accessibility |title=Southern to the Roots |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 3, 2015}}

All tracks written by Lucinda Williams, except where noted.{{cite AV media notes|others = Lucinda Williams |title = Sweet Old World |year = 1992 |type = booklet |publisher = Chameleon}}

{{Track listing

| title1 = Six Blocks Away

| length1 = 2:52

| title2 = Something About What Happens When We Talk

| length2 = 3:50

| title3 = He Never Got Enough Love

| writer3 = {{hlist|Lucinda Williams|Betty Elders}}

| length3 = 3:52

| title4 = Sweet Old World

| length4 = 4:03

| title5 = Little Angel, Little Brother

| length5 = 4:25

| title6 = Pineola

| length6 = 4:10

| title7 = Lines Around Your Eyes

| length7 = 2:29

| title8 = Prove My Love

| length8 = 2:48

| title9 = Sidewalks of the City

| length9 = 3:46

| title10 = Memphis Pearl

| writer10 = {{hlist|Williams|Lorne Rall}}

| length10 = 3:48

| title11 = Hot Blood

| length11 = 5:27

| title12 = Which Will

| writer12 = Nick Drake

| length12 = 3:49

| total_length = 45:27

}}

• Lucinda Williams – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
• Gurf Morlix – electric and acoustic guitar, pedal steel, dobro, mandolin, lap steel, beer bottle and background vocals
• Duane Jarvis – electric guitar
• John Ciambotti – electric and upright bass
• Donald Lindley – drums and percussion
• Doug Atwell – fiddle
• Byron Berline – fiddle & mandolin
• Skip Edwards – Hammond B-3 organ
• Benmont Tench – Hammond B-3 organ
• William "Smitty" Smith – Hammond B-3 organ
• Gia Ciambotti, Jim Lauderdale, Dusty Wakeman – background vocals

{{Reflist}}

• {{Discogs master|type=album|371189}}
• [https://www.lucindawilliams.com/ Lucinda Williams Official Website]

{{Lucinda Williams}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Lucinda Williams albums

Category:1992 albums