Victoria Williams

After dwelling in obscurity for years, Victoria Williams is finally getting her due. When
Sweet Relief: A Benefit for Victoria Williams, the star-studded tribute album, was issued last
year to popular and critical acclaim, many more people became aware of her as a
songwriter than had ever heard of her as a recording artist. After that, Geffen reissued her
wondrous, idiosyncratic 1987 debut, Happy Come Home, and Mammoth bought t... More >

Whimsy's not a pose or an aesthetic decision with this woman, it's who she is, and there's no use blaming her for it. Instead, gauge how far you can tolerate her quirks and proceed accordingly, because she's finally transformed her folksy positivism into a worldview worthy of her talent--or maybe honed her talent into a winning vehicle for her worldview. Either way I suspect the reason is less that she's seen the flip side of eternity than that she can no longer doubt how many people love her. It's a responsibility, that much affection--makes you track down those inspirations, finish those songs, get up and go to the studio no matter how scared you are. Makes you not just love back but say why. (Grade: A-)