Pistol Annies - Interstate Gospel (2018) LP

A gender-flipped answer to country supergroup the Highwaymen, Pistol Annies—Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley—use their third album to take aim at tired ex-partners and those parts of themselves they’re ready to cast off. The post-divorce anthem “Got My Name Changed Back” and role-reversal roadhouse jam “Sugar Daddy” show off the trio’s cheek. But when they slow things down, as on the cutting but compassionate “Best Years of My Life” and “When I Was His Wife,” their harmonies and candid lyricism reveal the bruises hiding beneath all that bravado. Interstate Gospel is a new kind of fairy tale, one that turns the false promise of a happy ending into a fresh start.