by Kerry Gallagher//
A lot has happened in Miranda Lambert’s personal life since the release of Platinum two years ago. If you’ve paid any attention to the country music scene, you’d know I’m referring to her divorce from Blake Shelton. When Miranda announced the release of her sixth studio album, The Weight of These Wings, the world was expecting it to air out Blake’s dirty laundry. The world couldn’t have been more wrong, and now that we’ve all had some time to digest the album in its entirety we can finally talk about it. Instead of making a few jabs at her ex, Miranda shares perhaps the most personal growth she’s experienced with us through her own narrative. The Weight of These Wings is a double album (a rarity for a country artist) but ultimately tells two sides of one story.
Disc one is penned The Nerve because according to Miranda “It’s part of your being to have nerve at all, and if you’re going to have it you’re going to feel some pain from it. But you’re going to feel some great stuff too.”
3 ‘Must-Listen’ Tracks on The Nerve
- “Runnin’ Just in Case” – The opening track of the album sets the tone for The Nerve. “I carry them around with me/I don’t mind having scars/Happiness ain’t prison/but there’s freedom in a broken heart,” Miranda promises with this closing lyric.
- “Vice” – Miranda released this track as the lead single off the album back in July, but it sounds even better on the album. Vice, a confessional about weakness and wrong turns, aligns perfectly with this albums purpose of brutal honesty.
- “Pushin’ Time” – Pushin’ Time stands alone compared to any other ballad on The Weight of These Wings. If you’re going to listen to just one song off the album, it should be this one. Miranda is backed by Anderson Easts’ vocals, her current boyfriend. In the album’s most heartfelt moment Miranda sings “If it has to end in tears/I hope it’s in 60 years.”
Disc two, titled The Heart, tells the second side of Miranda’s narrative through songs about loss and heartbreak. “I love that imagination is connected with heart. You would think it’s just your creative brain, but it really starts in your heart,” she shared with fans on her Instagram. “So much of what I love as a musician, songwriter, the music that I listen to has to do with heart.”
3 ‘Must-Listen’ Tracks on The Heart
- “Tin Man” – The opening track is undeniably the one that stands out most on The Heart. Miranda’s shares with us her narrative to the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz assuring him that “If you ever felt one breaking/You’d never want a heart.”
- “Things That Break” – “I’m hard on things that matter/Hold a heart so tight it shatters/So I stay away from things that break.” Miranda continues the sonic cohesiveness of The Weight of These Wings with this track featuring her honesty on being careless and tough on things that break.
- Keeper of the Flame- Country artists are famous for their ability to tell a story unlike any other genre could. In Keeper of the Flame Miranda sings about country artists that came before her and her dedication to keep the country music legacy alive.
The Weight of These Wings is sitting pretty on the top spot of the Billboard Country Album chart. This marks Lambert’s sixth number one album. If there was ever any doubt that Miranda deserves the spot she’s claimed for herself in the country music industry, this album erases all of it.
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