You So Crazy
The “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” song has been around since well, since woman started playing music, and 2007 for some reason has seen a bunch of singles about that subject. Beyonce was #1 for months with "Irreplaceable," Kelly Clarkson went to war with Clive Davis for the right to release "Never Again" and My December in all it's bitch-tastic glory (you can read about "Never Again" here) and Avril Lavigne had a #1 hit with "Girlfriend," a grotesque bubblegum pop song overstuffed with faux punk attitude but undermined by her attempt at topping Ashlee Simpson. But it's country music that has an enviable claim on woman's revenge fantasies. It's a genre where Loretta Lynn can threatened to beat another woman up and call the song "Fist City," so it's kind of disappointing that the best they can give us right now is Carrie Underwood's toothless "Before He Cheats." That's probably why critics have tripped over themselves to praise Miranda Lambert. Her latest album, tactfully titled Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, is like the American Psycho of country music. While Underwood gets back at her no-good man by carving her name in the leather seat of his truck and puncturing his tires, Lambert drives cross country with a shotgun, drinks a six-pack and wait at his home to shoot him in the stomach.
Country produced another graphic revenge-killing song this year, Martina McBride's "Independence Day." But that song had a pall of regret and treated the killing as an inevitable tragedy. On "Gunpowder and Lead," Lambert treats killing like a trip to the hair salon. It's not just getting back at a bad boyfriend, it's a chance at liberating herself and asserting herself, in the most extreme way possible. A lot of artists use murder as the most extreme way to express both pain and desire. Johnny Cash has an entire back catalogue of murder songs and so does um, Slayer. It takes a huge personality and confidence to pull this off without being actually creepy, and Lambert has both. If "Gunpowder and Lead" is joyous, the title track is a downright celebration. Lambert goes to a bar packing a pistol and not only dares the other woman to start a fight, dismissing her with a pithy "little bitch," she wants her to. "I'm a crazy ex-girlfriend," Lambert sneers, and anything is possible for her with those lines.
It's surprising that Lambert resides so comfortably in mainstream Nashville, although on the surface, she's literally casted for the role of country starlet. She got her start on the reality show Nashville Stars and rode her model-looks and powerful voice to a third-place finish. Afterward, Lambert found her niche and released one of country's best single two years ago, "Kerosene," a rambling rocker about um, burning down your boyfriend's house. Obviously encouraged by that hit, she turned everything up to an 11 on her sophomore album. As much as Nashville can scrub individuality away to make everyone as dull and conforming as possible, they're frighteningly efficient in crafting spotless pop hits. I don't know how, but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is immaculately produced, every track is polished and smoothed over. But it's not airless, Lambert works best in rock arrangements and the instrumentals are loud and loose enough for her to snarl through the songs with maximum power.
They're only two songs about um, taking another human being's life, but the absolute defiance of those numbers pervade the entire album. On the second half of the album, Lambert gets retrospective about why she feels so vindictive. It's kind of like the last season of The Sopranos, and how Tony Soprano regrets some parts of his life but not realling wanting to change. On "Desperation," Lambert lets out her emotional suffering and "More Like Her" wishes she had more self-control like the other woman. Lambert regrets the reasons she had to do what she had to do, but she never regrets the actions themselves. Toward the end, Lambert's OK with being an emotional wreck because the songs are exuberant and Lambert's radiant. Even the last song, a cover of the Carlene Carter ballad "Easy From Now On," is OK with living with a broken heart. Lambert's actually looking forward to the future. It's an awesome way to end the procession and after the first listen, I had an urge to punch some guy in the face because he probably did something to deserve it.
Download: Miranda Lambert "Gunpowder and Lead"
