Amazon.com’s Best of 1998
Six years in the making, Car Wheels somehow lives up to its lofty expectations because of Williams’s direct songwriting and her wonderfully unaffected vocals. With assistance from cohorts such as Steve Earle, Williams uses the acoustic accents of Dobros, mandolins, slide guitars, and accordions to add color to her grooves, whispers, and rumbles. Her lyrics are undisguised as she presents to us the travelogue of her memory. We can’t wait for 2004! –Marc Greils… More >>
ISO 3006:2005, Road vehicles – Passenger car wheels
Wheel Pals
The 2009 Report on New Aluminum Wheels for Cars and Light
Car Wheel and Handle Cufflinks, Car Wheels NCL07
Jada I-Ridez VW Beetle – Red
Silver-Tone Car Wheel Keychain/ Clip-On Watch- 9200SC
Hot Wheels Cars Stickers Party Supplies
#1 by Anonymous on April 22, 2010 - 2:16 pm
I would agree that these are well written songs and musically they are terrific, however, Lucinda’s voice is TERRIBLE! I liked the songs so much I kept listening to it hoping her voice would get better. No such luck — it kills the whole thing for me. This one makes me wish you could return opened CDs.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by Sarah Rowlands on April 22, 2010 - 4:31 pm
I got this CD all sure that I would like it because of the great reviews and most of the people Lucinda Williams are compared to I love.I really was not impressed at all.
Rating: 2 / 5
#3 by Anonymous on April 22, 2010 - 4:40 pm
Absolutely the worst recording I have ever heard. Makes me think I could do it better.
Rating: 1 / 5
#4 by Anonymous on April 22, 2010 - 6:20 pm
I feel like I’ve been in a prolonged wrestling match with this album ever since I bought it back in 98. Many of the songs are undeniably great, near perfect. “I Lost It” is as good as a song can be. But I’ve finally come to the conclusion that for every great song on here there’s an equally great song that’s been hijacked by terrible lyrics. “Drunken Angel” comes immediately to mind. Good God, what false profundity! From the chorus, you’d think she was singing a gospel written by one of the early martyrs in a lion pit, but what about the rest of the song? What the heck is so dang wrenching about a guy who claims to be from Louisiana but really isn’t? Maybe it’s just too subtle for me. Most songwriters, I’m sure, turn to a thesaurus now and then, but not Williams: she’s got her trusty map of the south. Place names are not evocative of anything, but Williams, apparently believing otherwise, tosses them in about as often as she does definite articles. It’s just plain lazy, in my opinion. Give Proust the word “Greenville” and he’ll churn out 400 pages and still have infinitely more to say. Williams simply pulls it off the map and puts a little X over it to remind her not to use it again.
Still, as much as the album grates on my nerves I have to give it 3 stars. It really does have terrific songs. But when someone who is so obviously careful about her lyrics puts out something as dreadful as “Drunken Angel” it’s really hard to fathom. Could it be that she’s slyly slipping in and out of parody? If that’s true, she’s brilliant. But I don’t think it is….
Rating: 3 / 5
#5 by C. SKALA on April 22, 2010 - 8:44 pm
An artist as loving, creative and emotional as Lucinda Williams deserves any and all the accolades currently raining down on her tousled head, particularly in a commercial music industry which has the reputation for crushing every genuine instinct you care to mention. CAR WHEELS ON A GRAVEL ROAD however, betrays (in my humble opinion) a slide towards the mainstream which doesn’t do justice either to Lucinda Williams’ muse or to the high expectations of her now devoted following. The production is slick, shallow and (bizarely) reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen’s THE RIVER. The instrumentation has become merely conventional and her lovely, throaty, yearning singing is less interesting than on previous outings like her eponymous album and SWEET OLD WORLD.
I’d like to like this album more than I do. Perhaps Lucinda Williams herself was uncomfortable with the results, which might explain why it took so long to achieve a release.
Rating: 3 / 5