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Singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert displays a duel personality
on her albums, walking the line between being as gentle as a country
rose and as fierce as a tornado ripping across Kansas. Ironically,
both are genuine to her nature as she demonstrates the spitfire urgency
of punk rock and the calming effects of ambient pop on her new CD
Revolution. Her songs have congruent pieces even as polarized
elements such as country and punk come together in a fiery union.
With a collection of original tracks and cover tunes like Fred
Eaglesmith's cowboy rocker "Time To Get A Gun" and John
Prine's burly romper "That's The Way That The World Goes
'Round," Lambert showcases an arsenal that is loaded with substance
and relevance applicable to everyday living.
Lambert is probably best known for her tough and rugged country rockers,
but on Revolution she does not shy away from her softer side
like the genteel, countrified acoustics of "The House That Built
Me" and the willowy riffs of "Makin' Plans." These
tracks display Lambert's flowery love-child side, the daydreamer in
her who wraps her arms around her surroundings and sees only love
and beauty before her. But Lambert has more than one facet to her
persona and she belts out strong with the rowdy, roadhouse rocker
"Somewhere Trouble Don't Go" bulging with firecracker-whipping
bursts and a throbbing, tribal beating. Her songs take advantage of
the pedal steel's tingling twang and the slide guitar's whining along
the bobbing swells of "Only Prettier" and "White Liar,"
and the orchestral frills that ascend and recede along "Maintain
The Pain." The sunny chimes bubbling along "Me And Your
Cigarettes" and "Dead Flowers" are cupped in gentle
rhythmic flutters, and the gilding of delicate guitar pickings strewn
along "Airstream Song" give Lambert's vocals a girl-next-door
kind of feel.
The dulcet, country/bluegrass atmospherics of "Virginia Bluebell"
have finessed acoustics and a glossy finish, complemented by the buoyant
crescendos and falls along "Love Song" sprinkled in glistening
guitar chords, while the album shifts into a series of robust jabbing
and thrusting motions across "Sin For A Sin," written by
Lambert and her beau Blake Shelton, which accentuate Lambert's
spunky vocal chops. Lambert's lyrics have a penchant for confessing
feelings of love, hurt and loss like in "Love Song" when
she reflects, "I was standing there crying in the kitchen / It
had been one of those mornings that's gonna last all day / And he
comes in, wraps his arms around me / And I don't even have to say
a thing / That's what makes it love / That's what makes it a love
song." Other lyrics shed light on Lambert's feisty side like
in "Heart Like Mine" when she storms, "I ain't the
kind you take home to mama / I ain't the kind to wear no ring / Somehow
I always get stronger / When I'm on my second drink."
Not one to feel insecure by venturing outside of country music's
comfort zone, Miranda Lambert is a multi-faceted singer and songwriter
who performs more than straight-ahead country while wearing her
confidence in plain sight. She may look like a Barbie doll, but
she can thrash with the best punk rockers out there and never lose
her infamous country twang.
-Susan Frances
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