Lambert ventures down some darker highways

When the Academy of Country Music Awards nominations roll around in a few weeks, it’ll be interesting to see how they react to Miranda Lambert’s new release, “The Weight of These Wings.” Will she get her usual truckload of nominations or will the number drop because some folks just don’t know what to make of the double album?

Much of the music doesn’t brim with Lambert’s usual sassy and sly energy. There’s not a single serious rave-up across its 24 songs; only a few are midtempo or better. On first listen, it’s easy to imag- ine that there would be some confusion, if not outright anger, that Lambert hasn’t simply recorded another version of “Platinum” or “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.”

I can only imagine what record label execs thought when they f irst heard it: “Where’s the hit?” While the first single, “Vice,” reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the latest, “We Should Be Friends” stands only at No. 36 on the chart, its highest position in seven weeks of release.

Written and recorded in the aftermath of Lambert’s divorce from country singer Blake Shelton, “Weight” carries a lot of pain in its digital 0s and 1s and it walks some bleak highways. In fact, traveling down the road, both in real life or metaphorically, is a common theme — whether it’s running from a broken heart, searching for something better in general or the inability to stay in one place. Even when she perks up her Shawn Ryan feisty side — Lambert cannot totally rein it in — it can be the lyrics, not the music, that tells you so.

Now, post-divorce albums aren’t new. Practically every musician who has gone through such a trial has written at least a couple of songs to document it. They generally fall into three categories: He/she is the slug slime that you find on the bottom of a slug’s shoes. Or: My heart has cracked and is bleeding out all my love until I’m dry and will never love again. Or: I’m hurting now, but I’ll claw my way out of this morass and be happy again — someday. Lambert doesn’t go down the slug-slime trail, staying mostly in the second category or the third. She doesn’t whine or become self-pitying — or at least not much.

Still, in an industry drowning in “Dukes of Hazzard” bro- country and glossy-but-vacuous blueprint for many modern country songs, Lambert should be applauded for bravery, for not doing what would be easy and expected. Whether the rest of the industry and fandom feels the same way is still up for debate.