Revolution (Columbia Nashville, 2009)

Every once in a while an album comes along that restores your faith in mainstream country music. Miranda Lambert's "Revolution" is just such a recording. It's not revolutionary, as the title might suggest. Instead, this CD is chock full of topnotch songs that are both memorable and sincere and never sound slick or overproduced. (Come to think of it, such old school values as these may in fact be revolutionary around Nashville).

Lambert vocalizes a bit like a little girl at times, although she aggressively sings the snot out of Julie Miller's Somewhere Trouble Don't Go. Sin for a Sin also has a similar rock stomp to it. The down home sentiments of Sometimes I Wish (Airstream Song) and the political incorrectness of Me and Your Cigarettes are particularly likable. Lambert wrote the majority of these songs, many times with current honey Blake Shelton. And while the lyrics don't come off particularly autobiographical, tracks like Maintain the Pain are filled with universal truths concerning trying to get by in this dangerous world.

Hits, such as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, may have grabbed the public's initial attention, but "Revolution" is sure to earn Miranda Lambert deeper respect for its start-to-finish high quality country music.