Miranda Lambert Enters New Disco Era with “Crisco” (A Review)

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Miranda Lambert has officially entered her disco era, though it might be fair to ask if country music isn’t far behind. After all, Johnny Blue Skies (Sturgill Simpson) touted his recent album Mutiny After Midnight as “disco” (though that feels like an imperfect descriptor), Emily Nenni has a new one out called Movin’ Shoes that has some of those elements to it, and even some of the Ella Langley appeal draws from incorporating elements of country’s Urban Cowboy ’80s era into the sound.

What’s undeniable is that we’re in a retro moment in country, and Miranda Lambert is betting hard that moment includes a little nostalgia for both sides of the John Travolta dance movie craze. Retrospectively speaking though, we can now see that Lambert’s new song “Crisco” wasn’t her first salvo from this new era. In the summer of 2015 when she released “A Song To Sing” with Chris Stapleton and it’s heart-shaped mirror ball artwork, that was really the beginning of it for Lambert.

But just like “A Song To Sing,” new song “Crisco” feels like empty calories. For someone who is such a champion of great songs and great songwriters, Miranda Lambert once again records a song that feels lesser than. Five songwriters contributed to “Crisco”—Lambert, Jesse Frasure, Kris Wilkinson, Chill Fellacheck, and Aaron Raitiere. But this might be an instance where there’s too many cooks in the kitchen.

Sonically, the idea of combining country and disco is not a bad one. The strings are not too far from country’s countrypolitan influence, and when the piano/steel guitar break comes in, it explores the cool possibilities of mixing these two separate styles from the same era. “Crisco” is bouncy and fun, and is supposed to be a dance song, not some singer-songwriter Americana track. Taking it too seriously comes at the risk of missing the point.


But the dropping of song titles in the lyrics, and the sort of self-referencing of country and disco just feels lazy. Then when you combine it with whatever the hell they added to Miranda Lambert’s vocal signal in the chorus—not just Auto-tune, but likely a concoction of vocal sweeteners that squeezed the human element out of the performance—it all just feels a little overcooked.

Just because a song is meant to groove doesn’t mean the lyricism is unimportant, while trying to make it sound perfect denies “Crisco” the grease it needs to feel organic.

Recently, that dorky viral music reviewer guy Anthony Fantano said Ella Langley’s massive #1 “Choosin’ Texas” was “laughably generic.” But there’s nothing generic about it, especially as a pop song. It includes lots of twang, and tells a story of feeling lesser than and losing out on love—something so many can relate to. “Generic” is how “Crisco” feels since it doesn’t say much if anything.

“Crisco” and “Song To Sing” will feed into a bigger disco country album by Miranda Lambert, likely to be released later this year. Beyond the lead singles, you can be assured there will be some quality songs, just like the ones birthed during country’s Urban Cowboy era, including “Islands in the Stream” written by the Bee Gees, and referenced in “Crisco.”

But this isn’t just a retro era in country music. It’s also an era when songs matter. “Song To Sing” stalled out at #30 in the charts, and #17 on radio. It’s hard to see “Crisco” doing much better. Miranda Lambert might have hit on a sound. But she’s yet to hit on a song that can represent that sound at its best.

6/10

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