The tearstained songs on Lucinda Williams [ tickets ]' eighth album, "West," attest to the singer's growth through a tumultuous period in her life. Since her last release, 2003's "World Without Tears," Williams' world has been filled with them; her mother passed away, a stormy love affair came to an end, and she left behind her Southeastern homelands for the West and Los Angeles.

Confessional songwriting has always been Williams' stock and trade. On "West," her secrets are revealed in every lyric, rhythmic nuance and melody. She deals with her mother's passing on "Mama You Sweet" and the mournful "Fancy Funeral," where Williams realizes, "Don't buy a fancy funeral/It's not worth it in the end/Goodbyes can still be beautiful ... No amount of riches can bring back what you've lost."

Williams' twangy and weepy vocals work best over twisty melodies and bluesy arrangements brimming with dark longing, as they do on the epic "Unsuffer Me." That song, along with a few others here, features strings arranged by violinist Jenny Scheinman, brought onto the album by producer Hal Winter, whose work on Marianne Faithfull's "Strange Weather" impressed Williams. The strings are beautiful, adding texture and timeless yearning to already delicate arrangements.

"Learning How to Live," "Where is My Love" and "What If" are mid-tempo ballads that find Williams coping with separation while discovering herself and her inner strength, even while questioning everything she thought she knew. Her anger percolates in the barroom blues and double entendres of "Come On" and the nine-minute jam, "Wrap My Head Around That."

But the track that confronts all this hardship, loss and emotion most powerfully is the album's centerpiece, "Rescue," an ethereal, bluesy exploration into redemption and solace that sounds like a soundtrack for speeding across the Mojave--away from all those demons left behind in some dusty Louisiana town.