"Right in Time" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter

Lucinda Williams Lucinda Gayl Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums, ''Ramblin' on My Mind (Lucinda Williams album), Ramblin' on My Mind'' (1979) and ''Happy Woman Blues'' (198 ...

. It was released in 1998 as the first single from her fifth album, '' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'' (1998). The song was featured on the season one

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

to the Showtime series ''

The L Word ''The L Word'' is a television drama series that aired on Showtime in the United States from 2004 to 2009. The series follows the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women who live in West Hollywood, California. The premise originated wit ...

''.

Sarah McLachlan Sarah Ann McLachlan (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is ''Surfacing (album), Surfacing'' (1997), for which she won two G ...

selected the track for inclusion on her ''Artist's Choice'' compilation album in 2004.

Content

A review of the song from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

stated: "Few artists could conjure a sense of yearning for an absent lover the way Lucinda Williams does in 'Right in Time', making physical the painful nature of unsatisfied and overwhelming longing,

he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

moves to a feeling of immediacy as the chorus enters, shifting the tone from longing, twangy guitars propelling the chorus--'The way you move, it's right in time/It's right in time with me.' The song then segues into the more intimate setting of Lucinda's private world, where time slows down to a stagger, 'I take off my watch and my earrings/My bracelets and everything/Lie on my back and moan at the ceiling...Think about you and that long ride/I bite my nails, I get weak inside/Reach over and turn off the light/Oh my baby' drawn out in such a low, aching moan that the return of the guitars and closing chorus is a palpable release.

Reception

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

'' ranked "Right in Time" at No. 8 on their list of Williams' best 11 songs, while music website Return of Rock ranked it No. 3 on their list. ''

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'' wrote that the song includes some of her "most irreducible, eloquent poetry—'Not a day goes by I don’t think about you/You left your mark on me, it’s permanent, a tattoo'—before becoming a moaned narrative of a woman alone in bed, pleasuring herself. It is unbelievably sensual, a daydream." ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' observed that the song is "rich in meaning, pulsing with the thrill of love remembered, and hurting with the chill of absence." In a five-star-out-of-five review of ''Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'' for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'',

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

observed "from the album's very first lines-in which the flat 'Not a day goes by I don't think about you' sets up the ambush of 'You left your mark on me, it's permanent ause, we need a rhyme fasta tattoo otcha!, which is instantly trumped by 'Pierce the skin, the blood runs through' and then swoons into a forlorn, unutterably simple 'Oh my baby'-Williams's every picked-over word and effect has something to say.

Track listing

;CD single - US * Album Version - 4:35 ;CD single - UK * Album Version - 4:35 ;CD single - Europe * Album Version - 4:35

References

External links

*, official audio (no music video) {{Authority control 1998 songs 1998 singles Alternative country songs Lucinda Williams songs Songs written by Lucinda Williams Mercury Records singles