Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Six years in the making, the fifth record from melancholy country-rocker Lucinda Williams proves worth the wait. With songs as searingly intimate as Williams's fans have come to expect, plus haunting instrumental textures and penetrating vocals, Car Wheels has enough meat on its bones to satisfy us until the next Williams project, even if that means holding out for another half decade. Release date: June 1, 1998.