Review: on 'Crisco', Miranda Lambert laces up her roller skates, takes country to the disco and has more fun than ever

After two decades as one of country's sharpest voices, Miranda Lambert decided to dance. 'Crisco', released Friday (Oct. 2) on MCA, has 12 tracks co-produced by Lambert and Jesse Frasure and, she says, grew out of a conversation about old records: why doesn't country look back at its own history more often? Her answer is a bridge to the country-disco of the late '70s and early '80s, the world of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers' 'Islands in the Stream', with sweeping strings, a mirror ball and snakeskin boots.

In this review, what stands out most is how light it feels. 'Snakeskin Boots', with Ella Langley, opens the record like a cinematic Western; the title track uses the genre mash-up as a relationship metaphor; and 'A Song to Sing', with Chris Stapleton, pulses on a funky bass line that sums up the concept. 'Two Things Can Be True' pairs melancholy steel guitar with a shuffle, and 'Cuttin' Onions' has the sass that made Lambert famous. The sped-up take on Jim Croce's 'I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song' respects the original without sounding like a museum piece.

Not everything lands: 'Whiskey Business' slips into a corny party chant, and the title single had a cool reception back in May from critics who found the vocals overprocessed. Still, US critics embraced the album as a whole, with a 7.6 from Country Central and an 8 from RIFF, and it's hard to argue: 'Crisco' is the sound of a star with nothing left to prove who has finally let her hair down. Score: 7.5/10