Miranda Lambert's 'Platinum' review: Best album of 2014 so far

Miranda Lambert's "Platinum" album cover. Credit: RCA Nashville

By GLENN GAMBOAglenn.gamboa@newsday.comJune 2, 2014

Let's cut to the chase: Miranda Lambert's new "Platinum" (RCA) album isn't just the finest work of her already-strong career, it's also the best album so far in an already impressive 2014.

Lambert does it by foregoing marketing strategies and current trends. She simply follows her heart and speaks her mind.

It's hard to imagine another superstar singer daring to be as raw as Lambert is in "Bathroom Sink," where her chorus is "It's amazing the amount of rejection that I see in my reflection, but I can't get out of the way," while still managing to rock hard.

Lambert effortlessly bounces from the Western swing style of "All That's Left" with The Time Jumpers to the Def Leppard-style arena rock of "Somethin' Bad" with Carrie Underwood. It's clear that "Platinum" isn't about packaging Lambert as some sort of salable country star, which was an issue with her last album. This is about ripping away the packaging to let Miranda be Miranda.

Whether it's the Bonnie Raitt-ish "Holding on to You," which she co-wrote with fellow Pistol Annie Ashley Monroe and Jessi Alexander, or the honky-tonk sing-along "Gravity's a Bitch," Lambert uses whatever country-leaning style suits her material best. She may be most effective, though, when, like her husband, Blake Shelton, she romanticizes the glory days of country, as she does in the first single, "Automatic," and the gorgeous "Another Sunday in the South."

But considering how great "Platinum" is, Lambert better watch out. She may be leading country into a new Golden Age.

MIRANDA LAMBERT