Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

With Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Miranda Lambert continues to forge her hot rocking Texas twang with narratives marinated in the same kind of vindictive retribution that helped make her 2005 debut Kerosene a certified platinum success. With her second offering, Lambert slips deeper into the high maintenance character of the album's title as she opens the first song, "Gunpowder & Lead," with shotgun in hand while waiting for her newly-paroled, abusive ex to set foot on her porch (the lyrics were actually inspired by a concealed handgun class Lambert was taking at the time she wrote them). And of course the title track burns hotter than the fire she set to a cheating lover's house on her first album. Lambert's voice sounds so melodically maniacal here that you can't help but worry for the woman on the receiving end of the song. The chart topping "Famous In A Small Town" is an endearing country pop outing that champions heartland living while proving that the versatile Lambert can't be pigeonholed. "Love Letters" clings to the classic tear-in-beer honky tonk formula while "Desperation" is a moving, radio-friendly ballad that Jewel could've penned.