"Are You Alright?" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter

Lucinda Williams Lucinda Gayle Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums: '' Ramblin' on My Mind'' (1979) and '' Happy Woman Blues'' (1980), in a traditional country and blues style ...

. It was released in 2007 as the first single from her eighth album, ''

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

'' (2007). The song was featured in a season three episode of ''

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'' ("

Fetal Position Fetal position (British English: also foetal) is the positioning of the body of a prenatal fetus as it develops. In this position, the back is curved, the head is bowed, and the limbs are bent and drawn up to the torso. A compact position is ...

"), which aired on April 3, 2007, and a season six episode of ''

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'' (" Kennedy and Heidi"), which aired on May 13, 2007. It also appeared in the fourth episode of the

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series ''

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'', which aired on February 9, 2014.

Reception

In a four-star-out-of-five review of ''West'' for ''

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

'',

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

called "Are You Alright?" one of Williams's "greatest songs ever", writing "Riding a deep, lazy groove and keyed to a title refrain Williams repeats twenty-two times, it employs the commonest words in the language - all on the order of 'Are you sleeping through the night?/Do you have someone to hold you tight?' - to pound home how totally (and tenderly) you can miss your ex-lover." The song later ranked No. 34 on ''Rolling Stone's'' list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. Country music website Holler listed "Are You Alright?" as No. 13 of the best Lucinda Williams songs; "The exploratory empathy Lucinda expresses throughout this track is a hallmark of the artist’s career spent identifying with the marginalized. Like a lullaby, this melodic sees Lucinda once again directing the lost, offering a hand to the lonely. Sincerity resounds from the repetitive chorus line as she genuinely asks 'Are you alright?'"

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

also named it one of Williams' best songs, writing "Empathy for the lost and the marginalized runs through Williams's songwriting, and this gentle secular hymn for someone who's gone missing offers it in heartbreaking measure."

Accolades

Charts

References

External links

*, behind the scenes of the recording of West {{Authority control 2007 songs 2007 singles Lost Highway Records singles Lucinda Williams songs Songs written by Lucinda Williams