The accolades have come on quickly for young Miranda Lambert. Her first offering, KEROSENE, debuted at #1 on the country chart and was named one of the 10 best albums of the year by multiple publications including the New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine. CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND, her sophomore effort, earned Lambert the highly coveted ACM Album of the Year Award and again became a unanimous critics favorite topping virtually every year-end list. In the past 4 years, Miranda has toured with country greats George Strait, Keith Urban, Toby Keith, and is currently a special guest on the amazingly successful 2009 Kenny Chesney Sun City Carnival Tour. She has brought her live show to the small screen with performances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, CBS's the Early Show, ABCs CMA Music Festival, and both the CMA and ACM Award Shows.
While Miranda Lambert's first two albums spun tales of kerosene fires, bar fights, and firearmed vengeance, Revolution finds the Texan taking a good degree of comfort in her relationship with Blake Shelton, whose influence can be heard in the album's mellow, leisurely pace. Lambert has never played by anyone's rules, be they dictated by Nashville or society in general, but she has carved out her own set of principles over the course of a four-year career. Accordingly, Revolution offers a strong, cohesive take on what has quickly become "the Lambert sound": a blend of casual ballads and loud, fire-breathing anthems, many of which owe as much to rock & roll as country. She's more comfortable with the slower songs this time around -- "Dead Flowers" delivers one of her strongest vocal performances to date, while "Airstream" recalls the graceful delivery of Loretta Lynn -- but the harder numbers continue to pack a punch, even if they're not as R-rated as they once were. When Lambert howls her way through "Maintain the Pain," whose phaser-laden guitar underscores a decision to "put a bullet in my radio," she wields a double-edged sword like a pro, courting the Nashville crowd while simultaneously sending a kiss-off to those who deem her too dangerous. ~ Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
