Miranda Lambert beats Dierks Bentley to the punch

Gravel & Gold

Dierks Bentley opens his first self-produced album with a song about personally stability, "Same Ol' Me." Although its lyric explains how while life circumstances may change, Bentley basically remains the same person. The same thing, though, can also be said about the country star's music. He's been recording for 20 years now. Yet Bentley has come this far with his integrity still intact. He's back with a strong, 14-song set that, like a good beverage, feels good ...

Black

Dierks Bentley seems intent on expanding his musical boundaries, but he may have overreached too much in eschewing where he came from. That most evident by the dominating textured beats. Producer Ross Copperman and Bentley seem hell bent on injecting odd meters and sounds, sharp detours from past efforts. Unfortunately, the atmospheric beats muddy up the vocal delivery on "Freedom," a song that stretches far too long at almost four minutes. Bentley also channels U2 with its ...

Platinum

Cynics might think that Miranda Lambert is presumptuous in entitling her fifth disc "Platinum" and, in effect, assuming she'll get her plaque for selling 1 million units. But Lambert says that isn't the case, but more a matter of style, looks and feel. Lambert also wrote and discovered a lot of excellent songs that fit her quite well in an album in which she exposes her inner self as she matures. That may never more apparent than in the country rocker Lambert wrote ...