Miranda Lambert just hung a disco ball over the honky-tonk. Her tenth solo studio album, Crisco, arrived October 2 via MCA, and it trades dusty Texas roads for strings, grooves and a little Studio 54 shimmer.
Co-produced with Jesse Frasure, the 12-track set pulls from the lush countrypolitan sound of the ’60s and ’70s. Even Lambert seems surprised by where it landed. “A country disco record,” she told NPR with a laugh, “that wasn’t on my bingo card.” What started as a plan for a short EP grew into a full album, though she insists nostalgia was never the goal: “We weren’t trying to make a retro record.”
The guest list is tight. Ella Langley rides shotgun on the swaggering opener “Snakeskin Boots,” while Chris Stapleton joins for the Grammy-nominated “A Song to Sing.” There’s also a cover of Jim Croce‘s “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song.”
The timing couldn’t be better. “Choosin’ Texas,” the Langley smash Lambert co-wrote, just logged a record-breaking 24th week at No. 1 on the Hot 100.
