With Miranda Lambert’s debut album, Kerosene, the world became better acquainted with the abundantly talented and exuberant Nashville Star finalist. Her sophomore album, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, revealed even further maturation as she explored the darker side of her brash take-no-prisoners attitude. Lambert’s wonderful third album, Revolution, sees her further evolving as a songwriter and a vocalist. Now, instead of merely telling us how she’s feeling, Lambert pulls back the curtain of her blustery bravado and allows us to finally see and understand the core issues driving her intense emotions.
Lambert’s Songwriting Is Stellar
As with Kerosene and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Lambert had a hand in writing most of the songs on Revolution, and it’s in her songwriting where the greatest leaps are found. In essence, each of the 15 songs are fully-realized short stories made all the better by her willingness to put herself on display, warts and all. The album’s first single, “Dead Flowers,” which was absurdly released some five months prior to the album, showcases Lambert’s growing talent as a writer: "I feel like the flowers in this vase/He just brought ‘em home one day, “Ain’t they beautiful?” he said/They been here in the kitchen and the water’s turning gray/They’re sittin’ in the vase but now they’re dead, dead flowers.” “Dead Flowers” earned Lambert a Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
The beauty behind Revolution’s second single, “White Liar,” especially regarding the song’s twist ending, is Lambert’s willingness to reveal her own very human shortcomings. Instead of having us root for her to exact revenge on an evil-doer, she is now confident enough to show that, when all is said and done, she’s just as flawed as her perpetrator. Whereas on Kerosene or Crazy Ex-Girlfriend you might have cheered for her to win the battle, here she leaves you wondering if it’s even a war worth waging.
Lambert’s Vocals Shine Brightly
As much as Lambert’s songwriting seems to be growing and maturing, her most surprising improvement may be found in her beautifully emotive and, at times, restrained singing. “Love Song,” which she co-wrote with her beau, Blake Shelton and Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelly and Dave Haywood, is a beautiful ballad showing her ability to captivate us as much by the quiet yearning in her voice as the honesty of her message. When she sings, “I was standing there crying in the kitchen/It’s been one of those mornings that’s gonna last all day,” you are taken in by the sincerity in her voice, and you just want to give her a hug.
On “Makin’ Plans,” one of the three songs on Revolution Lambert penned by herself, she beautifully sings about her simple desire to stay close to the one she loves, and the conviction in her voice is undeniable. The sparse acoustic instrumentation on the wonderful “The House that Built Me” shines the spotlight squarely on Lambert’s vocals, which instantly sweep you up in her belief that if she could just convince the owners of her childhood home to let her take a quick peek inside, she’d be able to exercise a few demons by touching base with the innocence of her youth: "I thought if I could touch this place or feel it/This brokenness might start healing… If I could just come in/I swear I’ll leave/Won’t take nothing but a memory/from the house that built me."
The Attitude Is Still There
As much time as Lambert spends on Revolution peeling back the layers of her emotions to identify the core issues behind them, she hasn’t completely shied away from the attitude songs that put her on the map. The National Rifle Association ought to have a field day with “Time to Get a Gun,” which is pure old-school Lambert, assuming you can have an old-school side with only three studio albums under your belt: "Time to get a gun/That’s what I’ve been thinking/I could afford one/If I did a little less drinking/Time to put something between me and the sun/When the talking is over/It’s time to get a gun." Enough said.
A Refreshing Move toward Introspection
The most satisfying aspect of Revolution is Lambert’s willingness to look inside of herself and to try to identify what really makes her tick. There is a cathartic resonance to the music on Revolution. She is singing to us, but more than that, she is trying to understand herself. Absent is her compulsion to prove to the world that she can kick-butt and talk-back to the world whenever she feels like it. Instead, she allows us to see the vulnerability behind the bravado, and the result is a refreshingly candid and accessible album, and easily the best of her very young career.
Release Date: September 29, 2009
Label: Columbia Nashville
Best Tracks:
- “The House that Built Me”
- “Makin’ Plans”
- “White Liar”
- “Dead Flowers”