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Miranda Lambert – review of ‘Postcards from Texas’: spicy, funny and free

Many years ago a young, up-and-coming country singer sang about how ““They say you can’t go home anymore”of leaving home, moving on, and doing the best you can. “The House That Built Me” became Miranda Lambert’s biggest hit at the time—and remains one of her most iconic. But now, 20 years into her career and a bonafide superstar, Lambert has left Nashville to return home to her native Texas, rediscovering herself in the process.

Think of Lambert’s aptly titled 10th album, Postcards from Texas, as life lessons told through vignettes of a road trip through the Lone Star State. (It’s also where she recorded the album, her first since her independently released, self-titled 2001 record.) Sometimes she’s happy in the nostalgia of a memory (the geography-driven “Looking Back on Luckenbach” and “Santa Fe”). Other times, she’s vulnerable, regretting the chaos that destroyed her free-spiritedness (the gorgeous, solo-penned “Run” and the self-aware “Way Too Good At Breaking My Heart”).

Central to this homecoming of the prodigal daughter is the lush ‘No Man’s Land’, where she warns a man about how she is free, and they may love her if they need to, but they must trust that she will remain true to herself: “Love her like a Mustang / Like a wild animal / Let her run free.” That’s the essence of the record: someone comfortable in her own skin like a wildflower, acknowledging all the baggage that comes with it, but also finding a second wind with partners (whether it’s co-producer Jon Randall or husband Brendan McLoughlin) who embrace the chaos with her.

Never one to drown out her music with too much earnestness, ‘Postcards from Texas’ can be as brazen as it is sincere. Whether it’s Lambert gleefully challenging a cheating lover to continue her work (“What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine / So go ahead, baby, enjoy itshe sings on “Alimony,” which features a brilliant pun on the word “Alamo”) or a far-flung tale of a chance encounter with a pot-smoking, armed stranger on the run from the “copper” (‘Armadillo’) they are completely at home in her most brutal hits.

Lambert is feisty, funny and free-spirited on “Postcards from Texas,” which feels like the singer has nothing left to prove to anyone. It may occasionally fall back on genre tropes—sure, there’s always that one song about setting shit on fire (“Wranglers”) or drinking a little too much (“Bitch On The Sauce”)—and it may be a little too ballad-heavy, but the country superstar’s 10th album is as charming as it is witty and moving. After a long time away, Lambert is finally back home, fully himself and basking in that confidence.

Details

Miranda Lambert Postcards from Texas

  • Record label: Vanner Records/Republic Records
  • Release date: September 13, 2024