Miranda Lambert Album Reviews

Miranda Lambert was born in Longview, Texas. Her parents were private detectives and then ran a shelter for abused women – both of these experiences feed into Lambert’s songwriting. Lambert’s father played in a country-rock band and taught Lambert how to play the guitar so that she could write her own songs.

Introduction

After appearing on the Johnnie High Country Music Revue, Lambert released a self-titled album in 2001, at the age of 17. It’s largely been written out of her discography, glossier than her later work. Lambert launched her career with an appearance on the talent competition Nashville Star in 2003. She finished third, leading to a recording contract.

Her debut album topped the country charts, launching Lambert as a reliably consistent country artist. While the production flavours of her albums vary from organic to glossy, Lambert’s reliably gritty and feisty, making her reliably enjoyable. Lambert has said: “I love raw albums. I’d love to record an album in a garage and for it to sound like an old Gary Stewart album, without a bunch of overdubbed this and that. But when you’re in the mainstream, you’ve got to fit in. You’ve got to get your foot in the door first.” Lambert has successfully crossed over to the mainstream – her 2014 album Platinum topped the Billboard charts.

Modern mainstream country music has largely passed me by. Traditionalist artists are often pushed to the niches, and most Nashville stars owe as much to classic rock, 1980s stadium rock, and contemporary pop music as they do to Hank Williams and Patsy Cline. That doesn’t mean that the genre’s incapable of producing good music; Miranda Lambert’s a star of modern country who’s enjoyed critical acclaim for her feisty records.

Despite her commercially appealing sound, Lambert is well-connected to respected country artists. Her breakthrough hit ‘Kerosene’ credits Steve Earle as a co-writer, while she’s covered songs by Gillian Welch, John Prine, and Emmylou Harris. Respected country artists Natalie Hemby, Brandy Clark, and Kacey Musgraves all placed songs on Lambert albums before launching their own careers. Lambert’s also enjoyed success with her side-project Pistol Annies, along with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley.

Miranda Lambert Album Reviews

Miranda Lambert

2001, not rated
Lambert has seemingly disowned her debut album. It’s not available on Spotify. I listened to some of it on YouTube, and it’s not as distinctive as her later work. It’s closer to generic country and Lambert’s vocals are smoother and have less personality.

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Kerosene

2005, 7/10
After the false start of 2001’s self-titled album, Lambert found instant success with her major-label debut. It’s deserved – Kerosene is perhaps lacking in personality compared to later records, but the writing is already consistently strong. Lambert, only 21 when the record was released, has a writing credit on 11 of the 12 tracks, writing almost half of the record single-handedly. Her fellow Nashville Star contestant Travis Howard also writes, while her father Rick co-wrote her first major-label single, ‘Me and Charlie Talking’. Producers Mike Wrucke and Frank Liddell do a good job of furnishing Lambert with a sound that’s not tied to its era.

Kerosene starts strongly with the driving title track – Steve Earle was given a co-writing credit due to its resemblance to his song ‘I Feel Alright’. Lambert wrote ‘New Strings’ single-handedly, and it’s appealing with its jangle and propulsive chorus. Lambert has other modes apart from intensity; the nostalgia of ‘Me and Charlie Talking’ is lovely. She gets away with sparse arrangements on the acoustic ‘Greyhound Bound for Tomorrow’ and the torch song ‘There’s A Wall’.

Lambert would figure out how to inject more personality into her music, but Kerosene is a confident and competent major-label debut.

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

2007, 7.5/10
Both of Lambert’s parents worked as private investigators – she explained to interviewers that she saw a lot of crime scenes, while her parents also took in abuse victims. These experiences are reflected in the most attention-grabbing songs on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – the title track and ‘Gunpowder & Lead’. Lambert’s not a sassy badass all the time, however – Lambert told Young Money Magazine that tracks like ‘Desperation’ and ‘More Like Her’ are more autobiographical than before. The personal touch gives Crazy Ex-Girlfriend more depth than Kerosene, even though the two albums are similar musically. Guests include country legends Randy Scruggs and Buddy Miller, as well as veteran musicians Waddy Wachtel and Richard Bennett.

Amidst the autobiography, there are also three covers on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings’ ‘Dry Town’ makes its first appearance here, while ‘Easy From Now On’, written by Susanna Clark and Carlene Carter, improves on Emmylou Harris’ version with surprisingly pure vocals from Lambert. As pretty as Lambert’s voice is on songs like ‘Desperation’ and ‘More Like Her’, it’s the feisty stompers like ‘Gunpowder + Lead’, ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’, and ‘Guilty In Here’ that are the main attraction – the latter has the memorable line “The good ones all got wedding rings/And the young ones are just too dumb.”

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a strong follow-up for Lambert, improving on its predecessor without breaking much new ground.

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Revolution

2009, 8.5/10
Lambert hits her stride on her third album, which remains her highest-selling effort. She’s confident enough to make covers like ‘The House That Built Me’ and Fred Eaglesmith’s ‘Time to Get a Gun’ sound like her own. She displays a fascinating duality as a Southern woman, between the redneck facetiousness of ‘Time to Get A Gun’ and the self-awareness of ‘Heart Like Mine’. The record also marks the emergence of Natalie Hemby as a songwriter – she co-wrote four of the songs here, including the single ‘White Liar’ and the pretty ‘Virginia Bluebell’. Blake Shelton, whom Lambert would marry in 2011, co-writes ‘Me and Your Cigarettes’ and provides backing vocals on ‘Maintain the Pain’.

Lambert wrote the record’s lead single, ‘Dead Flowers’, herself, and it’s one of her best – there’s a nice tension between the gently chugging verses, with pedal steel, and the soaring choruses. I’m also partial to ‘Heart Like Mine’, where Lambert asserts “I heard Jesus he drank wine/And I bet we’d get along just fine”. The tone of the album is set by bad-girl country-rockers like ‘Me and Your Cigarettes’, but she’s also strong on pretty tunes like ‘The House That Built Me’ and ‘Virginia Bluebell’.

Revolution remains Lambert’s highest-selling record, confirming her as a country star.

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Four the Record

2011, 7.5/10
Lambert scaled down the production gloss on her fourth album, delivering a record that’s more low-key than anything she’d released up to that point. It feels as though Lambert is gently deflating her rebellious image, instead opting for a broader palette of personas. Four the Record is also notable for its number of covers – it doesn’t affect the feel of the record, since Lambert’s terrific at taking ownership of the songs she records, but Lambert only has a writing credit on six of these fourteen tracks. Instead, there’s material from Brandi Carlile, Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, Chris Stapleton, and Alison Moorer. Brandy Clark and Kacey Musgraves, both of whom have gone on to recording careers, co-wrote the single ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’. Steve Winwood guests on Hammond Organ on ‘Baggage Claim’, while Matt Chamberlain is the only credited drummer.

Four the Record feels like an overlooked album in Lambert’s discography, sandwiched between the successes of Revolution and Platinum. Although I appreciate the stripped-back arrangements of songs like ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’ and ‘Fastest Girl In Town’, their tunes are less memorable than usual for Lambert, and my favourite material is clustered toward the back end. ‘Baggage Claim’ was the lead single, and it’s dynamic with Winwood’s organ, Jay Joyce’s clavinet, and Josh Kelley’s backing vocals. There’s another ace Welch and Rawlings cover with ‘Look at Miss Ohio’, while the duet with Blake Shelton on ‘Better in the Long Run’ is lovely. The cover of Chris Stapleton’s ‘Nobody’s Fool’ is the record’s toughest rocker, while Alison Moorer provides backing vocals on her song ‘Oklahoma Sky’, presented in a sparse and haunting arrangement.

Four the Record is subdued following the brashness of Revolution, but it’s often strong nonetheless.

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Platinum

2014, 8/10
Lambert hit the peak of her stardom in 2014 with Platinum. She was married to country star Blake Shelton, while Platinum topped the Billboard charts and sold more than a million copies in the US. Despite the success, Platinum often follows the lead of Four the Record with more subdued and organic country sounds. The collaborations – ‘Smokin’ and Drinkin” with Little Big Town and “Something Bad’ with Carrie Underwood – feel tacked on, like contrived attempts at crossover hits. Platinum is a little overlong, but it’s a strong outing from Lambert.

Most illuminating lyrically is ‘Priscilla’, with Lambert comparing herself to Mrs Presley, competing with other women for her husband’s attention. Lambert’s often charming and funny here, especially on the more traditional numbers like ‘Babies Making Babies’ and ‘Gravity Is A Bitch’. It’s happened gradually, but humorous lyrics like “Well it’s a tried and true equation,/Maintains a small-town population” are a world away from Lambert’s attention-grabbing early songs like ‘Kerosene’ and ‘Gunpowder + Lead’.

Platinum was Lambert’s most commercially successful record, but her most artistically successful album would come with her next attempt.

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The Weight of These Wings

2016, 9/10
Modern country power couple Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert parted ways in 2015. The double album The Weight of These Wings ruminates on their failed marriage, as well as Lambert’s subsequent relationship with Anderson East. Befitting the sombre material, it’s her most traditional-sounding release – there’s little modern country gloss, with the songs presented in unflashy acoustic arrangements. Despite its relatively homogenous approach and its length, clocking in with 24 tracks, The Weight of These Wings is Lambert’s most consistently impressive release with lots of great songs.

One of the appeals of country music for me has always been the romance of American place names, and the excellent opener ‘Runnin’ Just In Case’ taps into this – “What I lost in Louisiana/I found back in Alabama” is a great line. Another favourite is the enigmatic ‘Smoking Jacket’ – apart from the steel guitar there’s barely a vestige of country in its smoky groove. The most memorable lyrics come from ‘Tin Man’, written by Lambert with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall (who she would later team up with on a 2021 album), trying to convince the Wizard of Oz character that he’s lucky not to have a heart. ‘I’ve Got Wheels’ is a great closer, ending the record on a hopeful note.

The Weight of These Wings is a career high for Lambert, her most heartfelt songs delivered with her most stripped-back production.

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Wildcard

2019, 7.5/10
On her seventh studio album, Lambert is produced by Jay Joyce. Joyce brings a stadium-rock veneer to some of these songs – ‘Mess With My Head’ and ‘Locomotive’ feature over-driven guitars that sound more like Richie Sambora than James Burton. Lambert’s personal life has been tabloid fodder for a decade. After tumultuous relationships with music stars Blake Shelton, Anderson East, and Evan Felker, she married a New York policeman in early 2019. Wildcard sometimes reflects her newfound domestic circumstances; “I’m sweet tea sippin’ on a front porch, sittin’/While my hubby fries chicken and I’m pickin’ these strings” is a couplet from ‘Locomotive’.

While these arrangements run the gamut between stadium rock and country, at least Lambert’s spirited vocals and lyrics provide an appropriate rebellious spirit. She’s bursting with personality, and her infectious stories carry the record even when the music’s overly slick. Maren Morris guests on ‘Way Too Pretty For Prison’, with witty couplets like “They don’t have rhinestone ball and chains/Lunch trays don’t come with Chardonnay”. There are classy ruminations on sex on ‘Fire Escape’, and my personal favourite ‘Pretty Bitchin” is essentially a crasser version of Pollyanna’s Glad Game. Abetted by ace songwriters like Liz Rose and Natalie Hemby, Lambert covers plenty of stylistic ground on Wildcard. ‘Locomotive’ and ‘Mess With My Head’ rock hard, while she settles into a country twang in the mellow later tracks, like ‘Dark Bars’ and ‘Tequila Does’.

Wildcard seems to be regarded as a mid-table Lambert album, but she’s clearly a talented operator, a songwriter bursting with charisma who can overcome some predictable arrangements to make captivating music regardless.

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The Marfa Tapes (with Jack Ingram and Jon Randall)

2021, 8/10
It took me a while to latch onto Miranda Lambert – she’s an excellent songwriter but favours a modern country production sheen. There were hints of a more modest sound on 2016’s acclaimed The Weight of These Wings, but she commits to a simple style on The Marfa Tapes. The Marfa Tapes was recorded around a campfire with two guitars and two microphones, with relaxed dialogue between the songs. Lambert shares the limelight with Jack Ingram and Randall. Both have released records, although Randall in particular is better known as a songwriter.

It may seem odd that Lambert revisits ‘Tin Man’ from The Weight of These Wings here. But it’s actually the first song that this trio of country artists wrote together, so it makes sense for this project. The Marfa Tapes has a fun and off-the-cuff atmosphere – ‘Am I Right or Amarillo?’ is a particularly goofy song title.

Despite the relaxed atmosphere, the songwriting is often very strong. There are fun singalongs like ‘Homegrown Tomatoes’ and ‘Geraldene’, but also moments of profundity like ‘The Wind’s Just Gonna Blow’. ‘Amazing Grace (West Texas)’ is a perfect closer, warm and spiritual.

I’m expecting Lambert to welcome back the big choruses and overdriven guitars for her next project, but it’s comforting to hear her play an album of warm Texan folk.

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Palomino

2022, 7.5/10
On Lambert’s eighth major-label solo album, she’s settled into a comfortable routine. She’s writing with Hemby, Luke Dick, Jack Ingram, and Jon Randall – stripped-back takes on three of these songs previously appeared on The Marfa Tapes. Palomino is pitched somewhere between the straightforward production of The Weight of These Wings and the gloss of Wildcard. It’s occasionally overly comfortable in its own skin with little new ground or emotional soul-baring, but it’s another fun collection. Session players include veteran pedal steel guitarist Al Perkins, while there’s an incongruous guest appearance from The B-52’s, Fred Schneider acting as Lambert’s hypeman on ‘Music City Queen’.

The best song is the reworking of ‘Geraldene’, which first appeared on The Marfa Tapes – the rock version here hits harder. With less personal writing, Lambert’s often drawing character sketches. These are often fun – Carol Jean, the chicken egg queen, who’s “a bad mother clucker with a house on the hill/Rides her hens around town in a Coup de Ville.” The up-tempo opener ‘Actin’ Up’ feels forced, but Lambert’s great on the mellow tracks like ‘That’s What Makes the Jukebox Play’ and ‘Carousel’. Palomino may be the first record by a major artist to cover a tune from Mick Jagger’s solo career – ‘Wandering Spirit’ fits with Lambert’s ‘[I’m just a] Tourist’ to shape the theme of the record.

There’s less at stake than usual for Lambert on Palomino, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.

10 Best Miranda Lambert Songs

Tin Man
Dead Flowers
Heart Like Mine
Easy From Now On
Gunpowder + Lead
Kerosene
Pretty Bitchin’
Baggage Claim
Smoking Jacket
Geraldene
Babies Making Babies