COUNTRY: Pistol Annies, "Hell on Heels" (Columbia Nashville)
You've seen the routine before: An artist starts out rough and crackling with energy; gets attention and acclaim; cleans up nice and becomes a star; wonders about the life and the attitude left behind; goes back to the old crew to get back in touch with roots.
Usually that arc is for rappers; now it's the turf of Miranda Lambert, country rapscallion turned belle of the ball. She's back to guns, right in the name of her new band, Pistol Annies, a collaboration with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley. "Hell on Heels," their debut, is thrown-together short, and full of lean and dirty productions. The songs have the feeling of rejuvenative writing, small experiments in genre and style for artists versed in country's classic modes.
"Beige" is an affecting look at a young bride with a big problem. "Lemon Drop," sung by Presley, is a neat trifle about poverty in the Kitty Wells vein. The title track, on which all three women share vocals, is a stark stunner about squeezing men dry, then dumping them like bad memories.
Songs like these recall Lambert's scratchier earlier days, and other ones here show range: "Bad Example" is a slick song about being naughty that Hank Williams would have gladly tackled, and "The Hunter's Wife," sung with stern determination by Presley, plays as a serious, steaming rejoinder to spouse-hostile songs such as Brad Paisley's "I'm Gonna Miss Her."
Not every experiment works, though, namely the dim "Boys From the South" and "Takin' Pills." And the biggest showcase for Lambert on the album, "Trailer for Rent," feels slightly deflated.
- JON CARAMANICA, NEW YORK TIMES
POP/ROCK: Barbra Streisand, "What Matters Most: Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman" (Columbia)
Since the then-18-year-old club singer met lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, she's recorded 51 of their compositions, including songs from her 1983 film "Yentl." Babs knows a good thing when she's got it. "What Matters Most" is a lovefest: romantic songs drenched in strings and a booklet crammed with photos of the prodigal daughter and her musical parents.
But Streisand's somber production and emotional vocals evoke melancholy more than joy -- a fitting mood for these theatrical but not sentimental songs. This career couple return to themes of the struggle of commitment, the torment of passion, the loneliness of love ("Solitary Moon" and "Alone in the World"). Streisand, who has made her mark in part by dragging out the drama of ballads and pop tunes, sets the tone by singing the first few verses of the psychological thriller "The Windmills of Your Mind" a cappella. She sings the Ol' Blue Eyes toe-tapper "Nice 'n' Easy" nice and slow.
Not until the eighth track, the sprightly Cole Porter-esque "That Face," does the old funny girl show up. But she doesn't stick around for long, because love is a serious matter -- the matter that matters most, as the Bergmans write in the title track.
