AMERICANA
Lucinda Williams
"West." Lost Highway. 13 tracks.
Grade: B-

Lucinda Williams is rapping again.

(ENLARGE)
Lucinda Williams' latest effort, 'West.'
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The singer-songwriter attempted to rock the mike on her last studio record, 2003's "World Without Tears," and now here she is on a nine-minute song called "Wrap My Head Around That," dropping craggy rhymes that sound like Missy Elliott crossed with Loretta Lynn.

Granted, this is just one track. But it's a window into Williams' ambition, which is not just to write rootsy ear candy. Indeed, "West" is a knotty album. "Come On," for instance, slaps down an inadequate ex-lover who didn't even know where to put his hands. "What If" goes down a surreal laundry list of hypotheticals — what if, the singer wonders, "cats walked on water/And birds had bank accounts/And we loved one another/In equal amounts." When Williams sings "Come into my world of loneliness" on the S&M-spiked "Unsuffer Me," the line seems to sum up the whole disc.

And yet, there are also moments of tenderness. "Everything Has Changed" is a quiet lament that references "my joy," a phrase that hard-core Williams fans will remember from her immortal "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" album. Perhaps best of all is the loping title track, which closes the album and shimmers like a river.

HOT TRACK: "West"

— Nick Marino

Lucinda Williams is scheduled to perform March 17 at the Tabernacle.