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?”

With her seventh album, the country star cheerfully exposes her sometimes-chaotic inner life, wearing her heart on her sleeve as she reaches for another shot of tequila.

She's been through hell and back and now that she's on the other side of it, she just might be the realest star in country music.

The country queen cranks up the guitars and the ambition on 'Wildcard,' her brilliant new album

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Country music powerhouse Miranda Leigh Lambert releases her seventh studio album and first album with producer Jay Joyce, which marks a depa...

The album lowers the emotional stakes but still manages to dole out plenty of country-rock bombast.

Besides being a multi-award winning country musician, Miranda Lambert understands that she's a celebrity.

The Tennessee star’s seventh album is a robustly entertaining set of droll country songs about men, booze and doing the laundry<br>

Miranda Lambert opens her current live show with “Locomotive,” a hard-rocking blast from the middle of new album Wildcard, the backing video adding to the obviously propulsive feel of the song.