10 Songs You Didn't Know Were About Heroin
4. "Essence" (Lucinda Williams)
Williams injects her usual raw, cowgirl energy into the title track from her sixth studio album. Whether the steamy lyrics serve as a metaphor for her own past heroin addiction or a drug-informed ode to a lover, "Essence" holds the listener spellbound right the start and doesn’t let go: “Baby, sweet baby, whisper my name. Shoot your love into my vein.”
The Grammy-nominated song manages to seamlessly blend desperation, lust, and obsession with equal aplomb. And even if love is blind, Williams reminds us cupid has no trouble finding a vein with a well-placed dart.
Recorded in 2001 at Mastermix Studios in Minneapolis under the Lost Highway label, "Essence" provides another yet another clear example of Williams’ affecting voice and songwriting talents in an otherwise murky, hard-to-define (Americana?) genre.