Four the Record

Miranda Lambert

Country music is not my forte. In fact it is probably the genre of music I know the least about. I don’t own a single country album. My iPod is sprinkled here and there with just a few songs. I don’t necessarily hate country music, but there is a lot of it that I don’t like. I find that it can be kind of corny and too much like pop music (which I also dislike), in that the person singing isn’t writing their own lyrics. And they are generally shallow and ridiculous.

The purpose of this blog is to review a diverse selection of new music and country music is no exception. Four the Record is, you guessed it, Miranda Lambert’s fourth album in the last six years. As it turns out she normally does most of the writing for her albums, but only contributed on 6 of the 14 songs for this album. My understanding is that she was busy writing for her side project Pistol Annies (who’s album was released in August during the writing process for this album. So Lambert’s had a pretty busy year. I’ll give her a pass because I can’t write one song for the life of me and I’m 22 years old.

I went into this listening experience with low expectations and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. Four the Record got off to a strong start with “All Kinds of Kinds,” a slow-tempo song about diversity followed by the bluesy, lust driven “Fine Tune.” From there, the album settles down and unleashes the fury (as much as possible for a country album) with “Mama’s Broken Heart” – an angst filled ballad about an overbearing mother trying to help her daughter with her relationship woes. “Same Old You” gives Lambert a chance to really show her vocal range while being fed up with her boyfriend and his slacking and drinking ways. The album then slows down for a few songs, but picks up again with “Nobody’s Fool” and closes out with the wistful and dreary “Oklahoma Sky.”

One of the songs I couldn’t get behind was the single (written by Lambert) “Baggage Claim,” whose metaphor for emotional baggage is a stretch for me. Her duet with husband Blake Shelton on “Better in the Long Run” felt clunky and didn’t hold my interest for very long.

Ironically, most of the songs that I liked were not written by Lambert. That isn’t to say she isn’t talented because she definitely is. She’s vocally on point in every song and has tremendous range. In fact, she may have the best voice of any female country singer today. However, coming from me that’s not saying very much. She sings what’s given to her perfectly and her writing team really gave her some good material. This album didn’t turn me into a country fan, but it made me appreciate the genre a little more.

Recommended Tracks: “Fine Tune”, “Mama’s Broken Heart”, “Same Old You”