~Photos by Trish Cassling, Academy of Country Music, ACM Awards, Blake Shelton, Country, country music, Miranda Lambert Awesome, Entertainment, Music, Reviews
In a country music landscape currently being filled with four song EPs and 10 song albums, Miranda Lambert just said fuck it and released a 24 track double album that may well define her career. But not in the way that a lot of radio fans and listeners were expecting.
The Weight Of These Wings is Lambert's seventh studio album (including her self-released/ self-titled 2001 debut), and follows five consecutive platinum records that all went to #1. It comes as Lambert holds a seven year run as the Academy of Country Music's Female Vocalist of the Year Award. And it comes after less than a year and a half after her divorce from ex-husband Blake Shelton.
A single listen to this beefy double album isn't enough to truly get a feel for what it truly offers. But it is was enough to come up with these thoughts...
1) This album feels personal. And not just in a "these are the pages of my diary, laid open for you to read" kind of way.
2) This album feels personal in a defiant way. In a "you wanted to know what the last two years of my life have felt like, here you fucking go" kind of way.
3) It really doesn't feel like this record was written, recorded, or released for radio. Yes, Vice went to #2 on the singles chart, and We Should Be Friends has been released as the second single. But overall, from 24 tracks, it doesn't shout RADIO HIT to me.
4) This album should clean up in award season.
From the start of disc one, Miranda Lambert has released a record that shows us more of her than I ever expected to see. On previous records we'd had glimpses of emotion and heartbreak, but The Weight Of These Wings drips with it. It's a super-saturation that is unavoidable and connects in ways that most singers would have to think long and hard about.
In fact, most people don't have it in them to share the things that Miranda Lambert has shared with their own best friends.
Songs like You Wouldn't Know Me, Tin Man, and Six Degrees Of Separation are more than we should have expected - even if we wanted it.
And while it's easy to listen to Vice on repeat, the emotional content and connection that The Weight Of These Wings provides can make it hard to listen to all 24 tracks on repeat if you are really listening. Even if you want to.
To this point, as I'm writing this post, I've listened to the full album four times in less than 24 hours. And I will listen to it again... because I want to.
I highly suggest that you listen to it too. Take the time to listen to the stories she's telling. Feel the vulnerability and defiance and artistry that comes through the speakers. And when you're done, I would invite you to sit in silence and think about everything that you've just heard.
It might not be easy. Especially if you find any way to connect to any piece of the material. But trust me, if you really want to get it, to do more than just enjoy the sounds, it's worth it.
This album may not have been written for radio. But it was written for country music fans. Do yourself a favour and hit play to listen to it now. And when the music hits you in the heart or the gut or that part of your brain that triggers memories and feelings, leave a comment to tell us what you think of what Miranda Lambert has done with The Weight Of These Wings.
