Miranda Lambert - The Weight Of These Wings (Album Review)
Friday, 02 December 2016
Written by Simon Ramsay
Country fans may have been eagerly anticipating Miranda Lambert’s retort to ex-husband Blake Shelton’s ‘If I’m Honest’ album, but this double disc opus is too mature and classy to file anywhere near petty mud-slinging. Although both inspired by their divorce, Shelton’s alleged truth teller was workmanlike, occasionally underhanded and mostly written by other people. ‘The Weight Of These Wings’, on the other hand, is a wilfully artistic, authentically expressive and emotionally complex confessional from a very gifted songwriter.
This is a decidedly uncommercial, pleasingly old school record that values truth and feeling over perfection and polish. Lambert’s website simply says: ‘Double Album. One Story.’ That narrative takes place over the course of 24 tracks – 20 of which she wrote or co-wrote - spread equally between two discs: ‘The Nerve’ and ‘The Heart’.
Both find the singer working through the aftermath of her break up, covering a range of contrasting moods and phases while mixing traditional country moments with rootsy Americana, folk, old time rock ‘n’ roll and Muscles Shoals grooves.
‘The Nerve’ is reactionary, like a grieving process where emotions are so ripe that every sense is alive while the mind is completely foggy and lost. Beginning in an ambient daze with Running Just In Case, her desperate protestations are impassioned but fail to convince: “I don’t mind having scars, happiness ain’t prison, but there’s freedom in a broken heart.”
What follows is a musical road trip where escape is achieved in erratic, unhealthy and – on Pink Sunglasses and We Should Be Friends – amusing ways. “I wanna go somewhere where nobody knows, I wanna know somewhere where nobody goes,” she sings on Highway Vagabond. Vice, meanwhile, is about finding safety from attachment in the beds of strangers and Ugly Lights casts her as a self-professed, embarrassingly clichéd, barfly.
That’s until Pushing Time arrives. It’s an intimate co-write and duet with current beau Anderson East about finding new love. “If it has to end in tears, I hope it’s in 60 years,” she sings, indicating a fragility that’s confirmed on final track Use My Heart: “The thought of loving you just makes me sick, I don’t have the nerve to use my heart.”
That leads nicely into ‘The Heart’ which – awoken and excited, but troubled, by the prospect of her new relationship – sees Lambert focusing inwards to deal with her divorce, what she’s discovered about herself and what she needs in order to tentatively move forwards. Keeper Of The Flame, Well-Rested, Six Degrees Of Separation, Dear Old Sun and To Learn Her are wonderfully crafted, while Tin Man finds Lambert talking to the character from The Wizard Of Oz on what’s the most vulnerable moment of her career. “If you don’t mind the scars, you give me your armour and you can have my heart,” she sings.
Although references to Shelton can be gleaned, there’s nothing overtly controversial here. This isn’t the work of a childish or vengeful writer. On tracks like Things That Break, Lambert deals more in self-recrimination, accepting her failings, implosive tendencies and taking responsibility. It’s hard to imagine the ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ singer would have responded this way 10 years ago, but that firebrand venom has been replaced by a deeper, wiser appreciation of the multi-faceted intricacies of romantic entanglement.
Making a consistent and cohesive double album is almost as hard as sculpting a sincere, grown up divorce record, but ‘Weight Of These Wings’ excels at both. It’s pure country through and through and the kind of statement that, in years to come, is likely to go down as one of the genre’s most iconic and important releases.
Miranda Lambert Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Fri August 18 2017 - BIRMINGHAM Barclaycard Arena
Sat August 19 2017 - MANCHESTER O2 Apollo
Mon August 21 2017 - GLASGOW Clyde Auditorium @ SECC
Wed August 23 2017 - LONDON Eventim Apollo
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