Her last album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, was a huge critical success. This much-anticipated follow-up takes a slight detour. Just as stark and plaintive as on its predecessor, the songs on Essence are even more somber in their post-Dylan good-love-gone-bad reflections. Simple, raw, passionate tales of longing that live up to the billing in the opening track "Lonely Girls" and its refrain "sweet, sad, songs." On the last few tracks, Williams shows that she can still rock, though even then, as with "Get Right with God," the songs have a redemptive quality.