From a small town country girl from Texas to one of Country music's biggest stars, Miranda Lambert has always kept it real. Real would be the perfect work to describe the Grammy winner's latest release, The Weight of These Wings.
The emotional journey and direction of Lambert's sixth studio album began when she and ex-husband, Blake Shelton split back in the summer of 2015. Although Lambert admitted in an interview with Billboard this summer: "I'm never going to have an album that's quote on quote a "heartbreak album," that seems as if that is only half of the two-disc collection, 'The Nerve' and 'The Heart'. The other half being healing from heartbreak, finding another someone and most importantly, finding yourself.
Tracks such as "Ugly Lights" and "Vice" have got to be the record's most honest songs. As Lambert admits herself as being a barfly, drinking her pain away, noticing all of the men and women with "pockets full of rings" but, for her she'll be "Sitting here alone when the ugly lights come on" until the bartender throws her out. Or admitting to her wrongs and bad habits, running town to town, the late night nights spent not knowing where she was or how she got there. Knowing she'll be back to repeat those same actions ("Vice").
Found between the two discs of The Weight of These Wings are songs all about heartbreak and heartache. Whether it's about struggling to trust and want someone else ("Use My Heart") or urging The Wizard of Oz's Tin Man to be careful of wanting a heart for when it breaks it hurts more than anything ("Tin Man"). Lambert's closest reference to her divorce with Shelton seems to be "Things That Break" as she sings "I'm a bull in a China cabinet" and having "A heart so tight it shatters", telling us her heart didn't know what it was doing after their separation. In another ballad titled "Six Degrees of Separation", Lambert describes struggling by constantly being reminded of an old relationship. The lyrics read "You're all over this damn nation. Well I'm out of your reach geographically. But you still find a way to get a hold of me."
Several of Nashville's best writers could be found on this record as well. Lambert teamed up with Natalie Hemby, which wrote a few of her former hits including "Automatic" and "White Liar" on several tracks. She also cut a few tracks she co-wrote with long-time friend, Ashley Monroe ("Use My Heart" and "To Learn Her"). Lambert's boyfriend, Anderson East, is also found on the credits of songwriters for The Weight of These Wings. The two teamed up to co-write "Getaway Driver", a love song which Lambert sings about a man who says his woman treats his "Heart like a stolen car. All the while she had the key". The two also joined forces to describe the struggles of moving forward in a new relationship with the past still too close in "Well Rested".
"Highway Vagabond" and "Pink Sunglasses" would be the catchy and somewhat sassy tracks of the collection. Talking about being on the road, traveling like a hippie ("Highway Vagabond") and seeing the world through a pair of discounted pink-colored sunglasses, wanting to just roll her eyes ("Pink Sunglasses").
Lambert's fight song would have to be "Keeper of the Flame." The song explains how she has found the courage to move on from her heart-felt past by looking up to her songwriting idols by writing herself as well. The project's sexiest ballad would have to be "Smoking Jacket," as Lambert describes just the man she needs. One "who's heart is tragic, but he makes magic on me every night."
The Weight of These Wings would have to be one of this year's best country albums yet. Speaking out about heartbreak, regret, the past, and what is to come in the future. This has been some of Lambert's best work as both a songwriter and an artist. We can expect a new era full of realness and new beginnings from the country star.
