Miranda Lambert

February 25, 2021 at PST

Drunk (And I Don't Wanna Go Home) - Single

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October 31, 2019 at PDT

Wildcard

In the middle of writing her seventh album Wildcard, Miranda Lambert hit pause. “I took the first long stretch I’ve ever had off in my entire career since I was 17,” she tells Apple Music. “Finally you realize how much you need a breath.” During that break, the country superstar made some big life changes, surprising the world by announcing that she’d secretly gotten married and was moving part-time to New York City—a switch-up that she says revitalized her creative energy and breathed new life into her sound. “Oddly enough, on my seventh solo album, I feel like I approached it more like my first album than any other record I’ve made,” she says.

In many ways, Wildcard feels like a new beginning. It’s full of frenetic, uptempo rock (“Locomotive”), propulsive power pop (“Mess With My Head"), and clear-eyed confidence (“It All Comes Out in the Wash”). The newfound edge is partly a reflection of producer Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Zac Brown Band), with whom she works for the first time here after years with Frank Liddell. Lambert says it was time to mix it up: “Country is what I do, it’s who I am…but I love rock ’n’ roll.”

Her country devotees will delight in “Way Too Pretty for Prison,” a deliciously clever breakup song in which Lambert and Maren Morris fantasize about killing an ex before ultimately deciding prison sounds unappealing (not enough boys, beauty parlors, or Chardonnay). And on “Pretty Bitchin’,” a similarly rowdy send-up, she rolls out a series of flexes—fine wine, a new guitar, a kitted-out Airstream—and makes no apologies about relishing her success in a world that is often unkind to women entertainers. “I use what I got/I don’t let it go to waste,” she sings with the remorseless air of someone who has endured their fair share of tabloid headlines. This song is about winning in spite of all that: "I’m pretty from the back/Kinda pretty in the face/I hate to admit it/But it didn’t stop me, did it?”

15 Tracks

October 14, 2021 at PDT

If I Was a Cowboy - Single

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September 28, 2009 at PDT

Revolution

Miranda Lambert was one of country music's most exciting 21st-century upstarts, crash-landing into the consciousness when she placed third on the country-idol competition Nashville Star in 2003. Her first two albums turned heads for her straight-shooting songs about life as an outlaw of womanhood. On Revolution, her third, she established herself as an artistic force, leaning into rock-influenced sounds as she continued to express her singular point of view on thrashing country-rockers and lacerating ballads alike.

Revolution opens with "White Liar", a stomping rocker that combines its soaring chorus with fingerpicked guitars and a bridge that gives Lambert's lyrical task-taking a twist. Other tracks, like the chiming "Me and Your Cigarettes", which has a power-pop snap, and the anthemic "Heart Like Mine", which juxtaposes fantasies of drinking wine alongside Jesus with a grimy guitar solo, double down on Lambert's wild-woman status amid more rock-leaning arrangements. Lambert's cover of folk hero John Prine's 1976 lament "That's The Way That the World Goes ’Round", meanwhile, adds a pop-punk bounce to its head-shaking chorus, turning it into a 21st-century eye-roll that's capped off by a frenetic banjo solo.

But it’s Revolution’s most bruised moments that reveal Lambert’s growth as a songwriter and singer. Lambert's vocal on the slow-burning elegy "Dead Flowers" is astonishing, adding woe to her descriptions of the mundane cruelty that transpires as two people drift apart. And the crystalline "The House That Built Me" peels back Lambert's tough-girl persona in a search for healing that takes her back home. Revolution reveals the deep emotional roots of Lambert’s renegade image in surprising and heart-rending ways, combining musical innovation and songwriting classicism in a way that she’d ride to country’s upper echelons over the next decade. In 2024, to mark the album's 15th anniversary, Lambert looked back at the stories behind some of the key songs on her career-changing album.

“Only Prettier”
“‘Only Prettier’ was the first song I ever wrote with Natalie Hemby. She brought the idea in, and I loved the attitude behind it. We wrote four songs in two hours that day. I love that the song starts off in a laid-back way, and then takes off and never looks back.”

“House that Built Me”
“When I heard this song for the first time, I cried for two hours. When a song hits you like that, you know it’s going to hit other people, too. For the past 15 years, there’s always been at least one person at every show that you can tell also deeply feels the emotion of the song. When I first recorded it, I thought that was because it was everybody’s story—that everyone has that house, or those people, that they think of. But one day, one of my long-time band members Scotty Wray, who we sadly lost in 2022, said to me, ‘I wish I’d had a house that built me.’ I’d never thought about it that way, but it made me realize that every person in the room either has those memories, or wishes that they had those memories. The song was written by Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin, and is one of those songs that falls under the category of, ‘Dang why didn’t I think of that?!’ It’s a very special song.“

”Heart Like Mine“
”I wrote ‘Heart Like Mine’ with my Pistol Annies bandmate and friend Ashley Monroe, as well as Travis Howard. Ashley and I had gone up to Pigeon Forge and spent a few days in a cabin to hang out and write. We started the song on that trip, and then finished it later in Texas with Travis. It’s my interpretation of what comes after.”

“Dead Flowers”
“I’ve tried to include at least one solo-write on most of my albums. Revolution had three on it, and ‘Dead Flowers’ was one of them. I’d had a bouquet of roses that had withered, and needed to be thrown away. I just threw them out in the yard. I also used to keep my Christmas lights up all the time, and so I looked out in the yard with the falling down Christmas lights, and the dead flowers, and that inspired the song. I wrote it in 20 minutes.”

“White Liar”
“I had hoped this song would become a single when I recorded it. It ended up being the second single off the album, after ‘Dead Flowers,’ and became my first number one. We threw a 1940s themed black and white party in Nashville to celebrate. It was epic.”

“That’s the Way that the World Goes Round”
“I was nervous to record this song, because I have the utmost respect for John Prine and I wanted to do the song justice. The way we recorded it ended up being a little bit Miranda, a little bit country, and a little bit punk. It sounded like we were having a party when we cut it, and believe me we were.”

“Virginia Bluebell”
“This song also was Natalie Hemby’s idea. I didn’t really know what a Virginia Bluebell was at the time, but it’s a little flower that hangs down like a bell and sort of droops. It’s beautiful. This song was such a different song for me at the time—I’d never heard anything like it, and never would have thought to write it. I love that the dead flowers come back around as Virginia Bluebells on the album.”

15 Tracks

November 17, 2016 at PST

The Weight of These Wings

It's tempting to view The Weight of These Wings as Lambert's "divorce album" following her split from Blake Shelton, and songs like the acoustic, regret-laden "Pushin' Time" certainly lend credence to that notion. But this ambitious, double-length LP illustrates the full range of her talents. A roadhouse-rockin' cover of Danny O'Keefe's 1971 tune "Covered Wagon," the throbbing indie-pop beat of "Six Degrees of Separation," and the funky slow-burn of "Pink Sunglasses" only hint at the wide terrain traversed here.

24 Tracks

April 30, 2007 at PDT

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Bonus Track Version)

"He ain't seen me crazy yet," Miranda Lambert sings of a no-good ex on the opening track of her sophomore album. The Texas firebrand ups the ante here, delivering a set that moves between the unveiled threats of "Gunpowder & Lead" and the tender balladry of "More Like Her." This is country music at its most manic, with Lambert capturing both the half-cocked highs and lovesick lows of the album's titular protagonist.

12 Tracks

June 2, 2014 at PDT

Platinum

Miranda Lambert is known for being a renegade, unafraid to let it all hang out—and this is probably her loosest album of all. She makes Platinum a party, opening up her door to a host of talented friends, including Little Big Town on the slow-rolling, R&B-flavored "Smokin' and Drinkin'" and Carrie Underwood on the blues-rocking roof-raiser "Somethin' Bad." And whether she's delivering a honky-tonk ode to aging, like "Gravity Is a B**ch," or the wry, folky anthem of anachronism "Old Shit," Lambert sounds supremely comfortable in her own skin.

16 Tracks

May 6, 2021 at PDT

The Marfa Tapes

Marfa, Texas, has played host to countless artists over the years, musical and otherwise. The storied West Texas town is known as much for its vast collection of fine arts as its famed Marfa lights, making it a popular destination for anyone in need of a bit of cosmic inspiration. For Miranda Lambert, Jack Ingram, and Jon Randall, Marfa offered the perfect setting for songwriting retreats, so much so that the trio returned for repeat visits over the last few years. “Jon had been preaching Marfa to us for a long time and telling us how magical it was,” Lambert tells Apple Music. “We're all from Texas, but that's like a whole other state in itself over there in that area. That was the first time we'd ever written as a trio even though we had been friends forever. It was instant chemistry, for sure.”

The Marfa Tapes captures the magic the trio found across 15 tracks, recorded in just five days using one acoustic guitar and two microphones. Accordingly, the desert itself plays a prominent sonic role in the project, with the occasional breeze or crackle of firewood adding the kind of intimacy that can’t be created in a recording studio. In addition to a number of new and unreleased songs, the collection includes an emotional, stripped-down version of Lambert’s beloved The Weight of These Wings song “Tin Man” as well as an acoustic take on Wildcard’s “Tequila Does.” Below, the trio offers insight into two of the highlights on The Marfa Tapes.

“Ghost”
Lambert: “That was one of those moments where I was actually venting. I was telling them two things I had done recently to make myself feel better. Some of that involves burning some clothes that weren't mine. That's how the ball started rolling.”
Randall: “We were stuck. We were sitting around a fire, and we were playing the song over and over. It never had that thing, whether it's a hook or just someone to make it real. That's when she goes, ‘And heaven knows I ain't afraid of ghosts.’ I started freaking out. [Jack] got up and danced around.”

“Amazing Grace (West Texas)”
Lambert: “That was all Jon Randall.”
Ingram: “Around the mountains, you can see for a hundred miles. We saw this cloud and the storm coming in. You could see it raining and how it just looks gray all the way to the ground. It rolled into the ranch where we stayed, the bunk house. It was just beautiful. That song was just like a soundtrack to what we were seeing and the landscape, just the people and the towns and the cows. It's like a soundtrack to our trip.”
Randall: “I can remember how it felt to be at that table outside writing the song. You become part of your own picture.”

15 Tracks

September 12, 2019 at PDT

Fooled Around and Fell in Love (feat. Maren Morris, Elle King, Ashley McBryde, Tenille Townes & Caylee Hammack) - Single

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August 22, 2011 at PDT

Hell On Heels

Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley formed Pistol Annies in 2011, and Hell on Heels instantly established them as a supergroup. The trio’s debut album took country's ideals of honest storytelling, rich harmonies, and gritty femininity in decidedly 21st-century directions. Hell on Heels’ bare-bones arrangements offered breathing space from bro country’s radio-dominating brawn, while its lyrics concisely chronicled the ups and downs of womens' real-life experiences.

Hell on Heels opens with its steely-eyed title track, a manifesto for the group both musically and lyrically: It smolders as the three declare themselves heartbreakers on a mission, out for the spoils—cars, apartments, guitars—offered them by men who ultimately wound up not being worth the emotional effort. As they do on the rest of the album, Lambert, Monroe, and Presley weave their voices together as they engage in insouciant boasting.

But Hell on Heels isn't all revelry. With storytelling acumen and bone-dry humor, they tackle depression, addiction, and the moments where women get fed up. The languorous "Housewife's Prayer" starts with a musing about "setting my house on fire" and plainly lays out a mother's malaise from there, and the sauntering "Trailer for Rent” is a snapshot of a woman who, despite being pushed to the brink, manages to hold onto optimism.

10 Tracks

October 31, 2011 at PDT

Four the Record

In another era, Miranda Lambert would be one tough rocker. The Nashville Star finalist continues to score country music that isn’t afraid to growl, grind, and pound with classic-rock ferocity. Country instrumentation highlights tunes such as “All Kinds of Kinds,” “Mama’s Broken Heart,” and “Dear Diamond,” but much of Lambert’s approach straddles the line between country and rock. “Fine Tune” pushes pure aggression with its distorted guitars and vocals, while “Fastest Girl in Town” uses its speed to throw a cathartic guitar solo into the mix. “Safe” mixes country, pop, and adult contemporary, where the voice makes all the difference. Esteemed outside writers give Lambert an edge. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings contribute the touching “Look at Miss Ohio,” while Allison Moorer writes the end-of-the-world ballad “Oklahoma Sky.” Brandi Carlile’s “Same Old You” could be a classic '50s country number. Lambert’s husband, Blake Shelton, duets for a perfectly locked-in performance on “Better in the Long Run.” She may not be seeking as much revenge these days, but she’s still bringing plenty of passion to everything she sings.

14 Tracks

November 1, 2018 at PDT

Interstate Gospel

A new-millennium answer to country supergroup The Highwaymen, Pistol Annies—Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley—use their third album to take aim at tired ex-partners and those parts of themselves they’re ready to cast off. The post-divorce anthem “Got My Name Changed Back” and role-reversal roadhouse jam “Sugar Daddy” show off the trio’s cheek. But when they slow things down, as on the cutting but compassionate “Best Years of My Life” and “When I Was His Wife,” their harmonies and candid lyricism reveal the bruises hiding beneath all that bravado. Interstate Gospel is a new kind of fairy tale, one that turns the false promise of a happy ending into a fresh start.

14 Tracks

September 12, 2024 at PDT

Postcards From Texas

Miranda Lambert may have hit it big in Nashville, but Texas will always be the country icon’s greatest muse. Like she did on the collaborative 2021 project The Marfa Tapes (joined by fellow Texans Jon Randall and Jack Ingram), Lambert shares sketches and vignettes of the Lone Star State, filtered through her equally introspective and humorous perspective. Postcards From Texas is Lambert’s ninth studio album, and the first solo LP she recorded in her home state of Texas since she was a teenager. Accordingly, the record feels homey and lived-in, like on the reflective and playful “Looking Back on Luckenbach” and the laidback love song “January Heart.” “Bitch on the Sauce (Just Drunk)” is more than just a cheeky title, teasing out the complications of a situationship. And opening track “Armadillo” is a barn-burning knee-slapper, with the unforgettable image of an armadillo with a “doobie.”

Lambert tells Apple Music that Postcards From Texas is a product of recent life changes as well as her career as a whole. “With turning 40 and [signing to] a new record label, I felt new freedom,” she says. “And with that freedom, all I wanted to do was go home to reset so I could get strong to take on a whole new journey. And so I think this record is a snapshot of more like two decades versus the last two years. There's emotions that I've felt for the last two decades as a woman [and] as an artist in this album. The only thing I haven't done is pick up a high armadillo in my car yet, but I want to.”Below, Lambert shares insight into several key tracks.

“Armadillo”
“Aaron Raitiere sent me that, the first song he sent me, and I was in Austria, actually, going down the road, because I played a show in Switzerland and [my husband] Brendan and I went to Austria. And we were driving through the mountains in Austria and I'm putting on my earbuds, and I just turned on Aaron's like, ‘Here's one.’ And it said, ‘I met an armadillo out in Amarillo and he asked me for a ride.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, yes, 100 percent yes, I'm cutting this.’ And I didn't even hear anymore. I handed Brendan an earbud and he was like, ‘Yes, 100 percent.’ I was like, ‘This should be the first song on the record.’ Just because it's fun and funny… If you're going to have an album full of songs and there's going to be so much emotion, you've got to make sure you have the fun.”

“Dammit Randy”
“I've definitely dragged it out too long in certain situations in my life. And I don't know if that's also, as you go through things in your life and as you get a little bit older, you're like, ‘Oh, well, now I've seen what happens if you let it fester.’ So you just learn to cut it off.”

“Run”
“I think the reason that I love horses and I love Airstreams and I love the [tour] bus is because it is a way to run to something, not necessarily away from something. I think that's why I've always been obsessed with trailers. I don't know if it's growing up on a tour bus or whatever, but I just feel like I can chase my dream but also have a piece of home.”

“Alimony”
“Shane [McAnally] walked into the barn, because we did one last push for writing for the record, and I'm like, ‘I'm making a record in Texas. I need to shuffle. Dang it, I need a shuffle. I have to.’ He was like, ‘Well, I got a title.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ And he was like, ‘If you're going to leave me in San Antonio, remember the alimony.’ And I was like, ‘I could literally punch you in the face right now.’ Dang it, why didn't I think of that? We got to use all of our little Texas puns, and it was fun.”

“I Hate Love Songs”
“It gives me chills, that song. It does. I wrote that in Marfa with [Jon Randall] and Jack [Ingram], and it's older. It's about six or seven years old, I think. That is sitting in the pain.”

“No Man’s Land”
“I don't think I could have written a song like this till now, because this is one of the newest on the album. Luke Dick had the idea, and I just love him because he gets girls. He's just such a man, but he's such a sensitive guy. He understands the wiring. He's a girl dad, too, so I think that probably helped. We never talked about that, and I want to talk to him about it and celebrate because I love this song so much, but it had to be done and it didn't need to be a ‘I'm in no man's land with your finger in the air.’ That's not what this is. I want to be in your space. I want you to be in my space... I want you to know that I want you here, but I need to be me. And that's the song. I think we really made sure to get that point across that it's not a warning.”

14 Tracks

June 5, 2023 at PDT

If You Were Mine - Single

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March 14, 2005 at PST

Kerosene

Miranda Lambert's debut was a game-changer, proving that a woman could be just as much of a badass as her male country contemporaries. Lambert breathes fire from the first moments, roaring out the revenge rocker "Kerosene" (co-written by Steve Earle) over snarling guitars and a steam-hammer beat. She's equally adept at ballads, though, as borne out by plaintive, bittersweet cuts like "Bring Me Down." But even Kerosene’s love songs drip with blood, sweat, and tears.

12 Tracks

June 27, 2024 at PDT

Dammit Randy - Single

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October 21, 2020 at PDT

Polyester (feat. Miranda Lambert) - Single

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May 6, 2013 at PDT

Annie Up

When you pack this much talent into a trio, what can you call it but a supergroup? As gifted as Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley are individually, together they're just an unstoppable force of nature, between those earthy, three-part harmonies and heavy-duty songwriting chops. While the Annies explore a multitude of moods—from the simmering, sultry opener, "I Feel a Sin Comin' On," to the country-rocking tale of a disastrous family gathering, "Hush Hush"—every move they make feels as natural as breathing.

12 Tracks

July 1, 2021 at PDT

Tequila Does (Telemitry Remix) - Single

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December 30, 2021 at PST

Y'all Means All (from Season 6 of Queer Eye) - Single

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April 12, 2018 at PDT

Keeper of the Flame (Radio Edit) - Single

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October 31, 2011 at PDT

Four the Record (Deluxe Edition)

While Miranda Lambert's fourth album still bears the same raw, rebellious spirit that made her famous, she expands in multiple directions at once, both lyrically and musically. Naturally, Miranda remains the queen of kiss-offs both sassy ("Baggage Claim") and bittersweet ("Same Old You"). But from the processed vocals and odd sound effects on "Fine Tune" to the postmodern rockabilly feel of the subtly feminist smash "Mama's Broken Heart," Four the Record sounds unlike any other mainstream country album of its era.

15 Tracks

May 2, 2024 at PDT

Wranglers - Single

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June 11, 2020 at PDT

Bluebird (Acoustic) - Single

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