MIRANDA LAMBERT: Postcards From Texas (Island)
Verdict: Delivers in style
Despite her knack of upsetting the country establishment in Nashville, Texan singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert has become a major star in her homeland.
Playing by her own rules — ‘got my own kind of country, kinda funky,’ she sang on 2022’s Actin’ Up — she has topped the American albums chart and conquered Las Vegas with her Velvet Rodeo residency.
It’s been a different story over here. Lambert, who once bragged of having ‘a mouth like a sailor’ and has dropped plenty of laugh-out-loud-funny songs over the years, has twice headlined our C2C: Country To Country festival, but British record-buyers have so far proved largely resistant to the charm of singles such as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Way Too Pretty For Prison, and she’s yet to secure a Top 40 album in the UK.
That will surely change with today’s arrival of Postcards From Texas. Not only is country-inspired music enjoying a boom in Britain, but many of this year’s biggest crossover acts, including Beyoncé, Post Malone and Kacey Musgraves, have deep connections with the Lone Star State, making this a particularly timely release.
American singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert stuns in a hot pink tassled cowgirl outfit
Recorded in Austin, and produced by Miranda and Emmylou Harris’s ex-guitarist Jon Randall, the album celebrates Texas and New Mexico, with songs set in Dallas, Amarillo, San Antonio and Santa Fe. There are tearful, pedal-steel ballads that could have been written at any point in the past 50 years, but also songs with a more contemporary, arena-ready rock sheen.
Given the 40-year-old singer’s background, it’s no surprise she’s a decent storyteller. Her parents were private detectives and, after her marriage to country star Blake Shelton ended in 2015, she married New York police officer Brendan McLoughlin. When she writes about divorce, despair and individuals who stray, it’s from the heart.
On the upbeat Armadillo, she sings of picking up a hitch-hiker who turns out to be a gun-toting outlaw. The rollicking Alimony, all bar-room beats and honky-tonk piano, warns a potentially wayward husband that any philandering will hit him in the pocket. ‘If you’re gonna be a dumbass, honey, I hope you remember the alimony,’ she cautions, putting her own pointed twist on the Texan rallying cry Remember The Alamo. There’s even a song, country-rock ballad Dammit Randy, co-written with her husband.
The romantic moments pack an emotional punch. The yearning Santa Fe, a duet with Parker McCollum, features harmonies worthy of the Everly Brothers. Looking Back On Luckenbach plays on the name of a Texan ghost town. Poetic ballad No Man’s Land is a hymn of praise to independent women.
Singing in a rich Texan twang, Lambert has the range to handle more expansive numbers. January Heart recalls the West Coast soft-rock of the Eagles, while a bluesier, psychedelic crunch surfaces on the guitar-led Wranglers, in which she threatens to burn her ex-lover’s clothes, including his favourite jeans.
Postcards From Texas might not break new ground, but it’s a firecracker of a return. Delivered with wit and panache, it might finally give her a deserved British breakthrough.
The 40-year-old country singer might get a well deserved British breakthrough off the back of her album Postcards from Texas
SNOW PATROL: The Forest Is The Path (Polydor)
Verdict: Charts a familiar course
Big, radio-friendly guitar anthems have been Snow Patrol’s stock-in-trade ever since the Northern Irish band broke through with Top Ten single Run in 2003. They followed with Chasing Cars, which struck a chord with millions and made the group’s album Eyes Open the UK’s bestselling record of 2006.
So it’s no surprise there’s a familiar ring to The Forest Is The Path, the band’s first album in six years — and the first since the departures last year of Jonny Quinn and Paul Wilson. The songs, in the opening half at least, are slow-burning epics.
Frontman Gary Lightbody, who hasn’t been in a relationship for ten years, supplies lovelorn lyrics. ‘I made a mess of everything,’ he admits on The Beginning. Nathan Connolly and Johnny McDaid add the tunes.
Album cover for Snow Patrol’s The Forest Is The Path
Snow Patrol performs during Radio 2 Live in the Park on September 7, 2024
There’s even room, on the title track, for backing vocals from Hollywood star Courteney Cox (McDaid’s partner) and actress Sarah Greene (Connolly’s fiancee). A strong return — and a solid primer for next year’s tour.
Both albums out today. Snow Patrol start a tour on February 15 at The O2, London (ticketmaster.co.uk).
Live: Florence + the Machine (Royal Albert Hall)
Verdict: Symphonic triumph
Having headlined Glastonbury and duetted with Taylor Swift on the Eras tour, Florence Welch knows how to make the most imposing venues feel intimate. And she brought those skills to bear as she made her BBC Proms debut with a spectacular orchestral rendition of her BRIT-winning 2009 debut album, Lungs.
As one of pop’s most theatrical performers, it was only a matter of time before Welch — aka Florence + the Machine — played the Proms, and she was in her element. Alongside Jules Buckley’s orchestra and a choir, she delivered with a dramatic flourish.
The acoustics of the Royal Albert Hall can be unforgiving, but her voice rang out forcefully and new arrangements amplified the emotional heft of songs written as gothic indie-rock but now reimagined as Symphony Of Lungs.
Florence Welch performs at the Royal Albert Hall
Florence + the Machine performs Kiss With A Fist as a fiddle-led jig
Highlights abounded. Kiss With A Fist became a fiddle-led jig. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) was transformed into a choral piece.
And the hall’s Grand Organ added a church-like feel to Candi Staton and The Source’s 1990s dance classic You’ve Got The Love.
Symphony Of Lungs is on BBC Sounds now.
Track of the Week: I WROTE YOUR NAME (UPON MY HEART) by STING FRONTING
A trio for the first time since The Police’s 2008 reunion tour, Sting revisits a classic beat on a muscular new single.
He’s backed by Dominic Miller and Chris Maas.
