Lambert moved back to Nashville after married life drew her from Music City to her “actual” hometowns in Oklahoma and Texas - and on The Weight Of These Wings, she’s singing about friendship for close to the first time, a theme supported by the credits’ close-knit web of collaborators. “If we ain’t broke down than we ain’t doing something right,” she sings on “Highway Vagabond” of the beauty in transition, only accessible after seeing firsthand that stability is a myth designed to sell Hallmark cards and Kleenex. Miranda Lambert Wrote Two Songs With Boyfriend Anderson East & 5 More Things We Learned From 'The…Īs Lambert traces her route from broken to whole along America’s blue highways (musical and otherwise), the album finds a pervading sense of contentment. That combination means the one word to describe The Weight of These Wings, with its lived-in production and learned-the-hard-way lyrics, is mature. But it’s not all swooning and self-serious: “Pink Sunglasses,” “Bad Boy,” and “We Should Be Friends” offer a healthy dose of the resigned - yet sharp - humor that country music does so well. Out of 24 songs there are zero about being wronged - but quite a few about being wrong, creating a hangovers-and-all self-portrait. Instead of fairytales or tragedies they offer ambiguity, the kind that too often comes with age instead of the wisdom we’ve been promised.
Some of the strongest songs - “Use My Heart,” “Tin Man,” “To Learn Her” - are also the ones without much narrative at all. The album’s stripped-down, organic sound necessarily focuses attention on the songwriting, a good thing as Lambert stretches her chops with increasingly abstract forays into introspection. Lambert’s voice sounds at ease - if a little less dynamic than usual - over the project’s lax tempos: fans looking for her trademark punchy head voice should turn to “We Should Be Friends” or “For The Birds,” both good candidates for the next radio single. It’s a looser, messier, more relaxed take on country music, punctuated with as many ambient synths and crunchy distortion pedals as banjos and slide guitars - there’s even some paper shuffling and recording noise left in for effect, though despite that sonic breadth the overall sound is a quiet one. Some songs are meant for Christmas lights and whiskey shots (“Ugly Lights”), others come equipped with amphitheater-ready reverb (“Well-Rested”), and still others shouldn’t ever be performed beyond a campfire (“Dear Old Sun”).
Instead of citing beer and pick up trucks - which, OK, do make an appearance or two - the songs find a sense of place holistically.
Miranda Lambert Is 'Nervous as Hell' But 'Willing to Be Vulnerable' on Post-Divorce Single 'Vice'
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