Miranda Lambert – Palomino – Album Review

By Hannah Compton on April 29, 2022 • ( Leave a comment )

There is nothing quite like a Miranda Lambert record and we get excited upon every album release of hers.

Lambert has such a unique sound and style to her music and vocals. Blending traditional sounds with a modern twist, Miranda is without a doubt one of the best in her genre.

Miranda never holds back in her music. Her albums are full of sass, attitude and female empowerment vocally, lyrically and sonically. Even the notation of her songs alone speak volumes and you can easily picture all of her songs in a live setting.

Palomino is Miranda’s 8th studio album.

The already released Actin’ Up kicks off the album, a song we were treated with live at Country 2 Country Festival in the UK. Miranda had also already released the fabulous If I Were A Cowboy which for us is one of her strongest singles in a while. It’s fun, catchy and of course, totally Miranda.

The other already released song was Strange. This is one of those timeless songs that have that ability to be loved by fans of all genres. The song is simple yet wonderful and a real toe-tapper.

In His Arms is a song fans will be familiar with from The Marfa Tapes that she released with Jon Randall and Jack Ingram. A more fully produced version, it doesn’t have the same impact as the Marfa Tapes version but probably isn’t intended to. The Marfa Tapes of course is stripped back and absolutely stunning but this version is needed and we are glad that some of those Marfa Tapes songs are getting these full versions too. Geraldine is of course another track that we know from Marfa. This version really works in full production mode as gives it so much more life and that extra instrumentation on it gives it that oomph and sass that makes a great Miranda record. This song is so infectious and fun and it would have been a shame to have never had this on this album.

The other Marfa Tape track on the album is Waxahachie. This version much like Geraldine brings the song to a scale we didn’t imagine. It is hard to compare the versions as both are sublime and Marfa is clearly more raw and why we think In His Arms in particular works better on Marfa.

I’ll Be Lovin’ You has quite a bit of similarity sonically to her song Bluebird. It is a great song but just has some familiarity.

Music City Queen feat B-52’s is a great tune that is a ‘crank up loudly’ in the car on a summers day kind of songs.

One to grow on us is Country Money but we are sure we will love it as we listen to it more. It may be the Fine Tune (Four The Record) of the album for us.

Miranda has always been an old soul musically and one for the history books. The majority of her music is timeless especially within her earlier albums such as Kerosene and Gunpowder and Lead and Palomino takes us right back to the eras of those albums.

Miranda is country through and through, there is no sugarcoating it, no falseness just pure authenticity and there’s a homely feel to her music. We hear that in all these songs but especially songs such as Scenes, Tourist and If I Was a Cowboy, Geraldine, That’s What Makes The Dukebox Play, Pursuit of Happiness, Wandering Spirit (cover) and Carousel.

The breathtaking Carousel brings the perfect close to the album much like Virgina Bluebell closed Revolution, Easy From Now On closed Gunpowder and Lead and Love Your Memory closed Kerosene. Carousel live would be absolute perfection especially if kept acoustic.

Miranda always works with the best of the best and this album is no exception. Natalie Hemby and Luke Dick in particular work so well with Miranda bringing us some of the best in country music.

Palomino is country music heaven and is everything we know and love about Lambert and more.