Platinum (Miranda Lambert album)

Platinum
Studio album by Miranda Lambert
Released	June 3, 2014
Genre	Country
Length	58:15
Label	RCA Nashville
Producer	Frank Liddell Chuck Ainlay Glenn Worf
Miranda Lambert chronology
Four the Record (2011) Platinum (2014)
Singles from Platinum
"Automatic" Released: February 17, 2014 "Somethin' Bad" Released: May 19, 2014 "Little Red Wagon" Released: January 12, 2015 "Smokin' and Drinkin'" Released: June 22, 2015

Platinum is the fifth studio album by American country recording artist Miranda Lambert, released on June 3, 2014, by RCA Nashville. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 180,000 copies in its first week and is Lambert's first album to reach the top of the Billboard 200. Platinum received widespread critical acclaim and earned Lambert a Grammy Award for Best Country Album and a CMA Award in the same category.

Background

Lambert wrote or co-wrote eight of the album's sixteen tracks. The album features collaborations with Little Big Town ("Smokin' and Drinkin'") and The Time Jumpers ("All That's Left"), as well as a duet with Carrie Underwood on "Somethin' Bad".^[1]

Promotion

Lambert and Carrie Underwood debuted "Somethin' Bad" on the 2014 Billboard Music Awards on May 18, 2014,^[2] and performed it again on June 4, 2014, during the CMT Music Awards.^[3]

In support of the album, Lambert has a North American tour scheduled for summer 2014. Select dates featured openers Justin Moore and Thomas Rhett.^[4]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
American Songwriter	[6]
Cuepoint	A[7]
Entertainment Weekly	A[8]
The Guardian	[9]
Los Angeles Times	[10]
PopMatters	7/10[11]
Rolling Stone	[12]
Spin	7/10[13]
USA Today	[14]

Platinum was released by RCA Nashville on June 3, 2014, and received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 86, based on 11 reviews.^[15] Robert Christgau praised its hooky, sassy songs in his review for Cuepoint, hailing Platinum as the year's most daring and consummate big-budget record and "apolitical de facto feminism at its countriest".^[7] New York Times critic Jon Caramanica called the album "vivacious, clever and slickly rowdy", showing Lambert had finally become "a sophisticated radical, a wry country feminist and an artist learning to experiment widely but also with less abrasion".^[16] Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic said the record was shrewdly produced with Lambert's attempts at modern pop songs sequenced ahead of the more authentic country material,^[5] while Will Hermes wrote in Rolling Stone that Lambert incorporated both traditional and alternative elements from country into her homespun, feminine perspective.^[12] Spin magazine's Dan Hyman was less enthusiastic, singling out the collaborations on "Smokin' and Drinkin'" and "Something Bad" as contrived appeals to pop audiences on what was an otherwise consistent and carefully crafted record.^[13]

At the end of 2014, Platinum was voted the 12th best album of the year in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by The Village Voice.^[17] Christgau, the poll's creator, named it the year's second best record in his year-end list for The Barnes & Noble Review.^[18] The album was also ranked fifth and nineteenth best by Rolling Stone and Spin, respectively.^[17] At the 2014 CMA Awards, it won in the "Album of the Year" category.^[19] It also earned Lambert the Best Country Album award at the 57th Grammy Awards in 2015.^[20]

Commercial performance

Platinum debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts, selling 180,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release and making it the highest first-week sales of Lambert's career.^[21] It was also her first album to reach the top of the Billboard 200,^[21] and marked her fifth consecutive No. 1 debut on the Top Country Albums, making her the first artist in the history of the chart to start her career with five No. 1 albums.^[21] It also debuted at No. 1 on the Canadian Albums Chart with first-week sales of 9,300 copies.^[22] As of November 2015, the album has sold 762,000 copies in the US.^[23]

Track listing

Source: Sony Music Nashville^[1]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Girls"	Nicolle Galyon Natalie Hemby Jimmy Robbins	3:35
2.	"Platinum"	Miranda Lambert Galyon Hemby	3:11
3.	"Little Red Wagon"	Audra Mae Joe Ginsberg	3:24
4.	"Smokin' and Drinkin'" (featuring Little Big Town)	Hemby Luke Laird Shane McAnally	5:30
5.	"Priscilla"	Galyon Hemby Robbins	3:26
6.	"Automatic"	Lambert Galyon Hemby	4:07
7.	"Bathroom Sink"	Lambert	4:05
8.	"Old Shit"	Brent Cobb Neil Mason	2:45
9.	"All That's Left" (featuring The Time Jumpers)	Dixie Hall Tom T. Hall	3:11
10.	"Gravity Is a Bitch"	Lambert Scotty Wray	3:08
11.	"Babies Makin' Babies"	Galyon Hemby Robbins	2:56
12.	"Somethin' Bad" (duet with Carrie Underwood)	Chris DeStefano Brett James Priscilla Renea	2:49
13.	"Holding on to You"	Lambert Jessi Alexander Ashley Monroe	4:32
14.	"Two Rings Shy"	Lambert Brandy Clark Heather Little	3:18
15.	"Hard Staying Sober"	Lambert Hemby Laird	4:28
16.	"Another Sunday in the South"	Lambert Alexander Monroe	3:50
Total length:			58:15

Personnel

Musicians

• Brad Albin – upright bass on "All That's Left"
• Jessi Alexander – background vocals
• Richard Bennett – banjo, bouzouki, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, tiple
• Jams Byous – background vocals
• Matt Chamberlain – drums, percussion
• Dr. G.K. Drakoulias – background vocals
• Glen Duncan – fiddle, acoustic guitar, mandolin
• Larry Franklin – fiddle and background vocals on "All That's Left"
• Paul Franklin – steel guitar on "All That's Left"
• Nicole Galyon – background vocals
• Warren Givins – background vocals
• Ranger Doug Green – acoustic guitar and background vocals on "All That's Left"
• Mallary Hope Whitener – background vocals
• Jedd Hughes – electric guitar, baritone guitar
• John Barlow Jarvis – keyboards, piano, synthesizer
• Carolyn Dawn Johnson – background vocals
• Jay Joyce – dobro, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, mandolin, Hammond organ, synthesizer
• Miranda Lambert – lead vocals
• Stephanie Lambring – background vocals
• Greg Leisz – acoustic guitar, steel guitar
• Heather Little – background vocals
• Richard Madenfort – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
• Audra Mae – background vocals
• Gene Miller – background vocals
• Eddie "Scarlito" Perez – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
• Marty Raybon – background vocals
• Andy Reiss – electric guitar on "All That's Left"
• Mike Rojas – piano, synthesizer
• Mando Saenz – harmonica
• Dawn Sears – vocals on "All That's Left"
• Kenny Sears – fiddle and background vocals on "All That's Left"
• Aubrie Sellers – background vocals
• Joe Spivey – fiddle and background vocals on "All That's Left"
• Harry Stinson – background vocals
• Jeff Taylor – accordion, piano, and background vocals on "All That's Left"
• Billy Thomas – drums on "All That's Left"
• Glenn Worf – bass guitar, upright bass

Special Guest Musicians Fred Eltringham – percussion Karen Fairchild – background vocals on "Smokin' and Drinkin'" Vince Gill – electric guitar and background vocals on "All That's Left" Ashley Monroe – background vocals Kimberly Schlapman – background vocals on "Smokin' and Drinkin'" Randy Scruggs – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, national steel guitar, slide guitar Gwen Sebastian – background vocals Chris Stapleton – background vocals Phillip Sweet – background vocals on "Smokin' and Drinkin'" Carrie Underwood – vocals on "Somethin' Bad" Jimi Westbrook – background vocals on "Smokin' and Drinkin'"

Production Chuck Ainlay – Engineer, Mixing Dave Bianco – Engineer Paul Cossette – Assistant Brittany Hamlin – Production Coordination Kam Luchterhand – Assistant Gavin Lurssen – Mastering Richard Madenfort – Arrangement Randee St. Nicholas – Photography Matt Rausch – Engineer Leslie Richter – Assistant Brandon Schexnayder – Assistant Matt Wheeler – Engineer

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2014–15) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA)[24] 8 Canadian Albums (Billboard)[25] 1 UK Country Albums Chart[26] 2 US Billboard 200[27] 1 US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[28] 1

Year-end charts Chart (2014) Position US Billboard 200[29] 30 US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[30] 8 Chart (2015) Position US Billboard 200[31] 76 US Top Country Albums (Billboard)[32] 15

Certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
United States (RIAA)[33]	Platinum	1,000,000
^*sales figures based on certification alone ^^shipments figures based on certification alone ^xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Release history

List of release dates, showing region, label, format, edition(s) and catalog number

Region	Date	Label	Format(s)	Edition(s)	Catalog
United States	June 3, 2014	RCA Nashville	CD digital download	Standard

References

1. "Miranda Lambert Sets ACM Record With 5 Consecutive Female Vocalist Of The Year Wins". April 7, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2014.
2. "Miranda to Perform with Carrie Underwood on 2014 Billboard Music Awards". mirandalambert.com. May 7, 2014. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
3. "Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood Ace "Something Bad"". CMT. June 4, 2014. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
4. "Miranda Announces Crystal Light Presents Platinum Tour". mirandalambert.com. May 13, 2014. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
5. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (June 2, 2014). "Platinum - Miranda Lambert | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
6. Bernstein, Jonathan (June 10, 2014). "Miranda Lambert: Platinum". American Songwriter. ForASong Media, LLC. ISSN 0896-8993. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
7. Christgau, Robert (December 12, 2014). "Expert Witness". Cuepoint. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
8. Maerz, Melissa (June 4, 2014). "Platinum Review". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. ISSN 1049-0434. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
9. Macpherson, Alex (June 12, 2014). "Miranda Lambert: Platinum review – righteous swagger from country star". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
10. Wood, Mikael (June 3, 2014). "Miranda Lambert catches a spark on exuberant 'Platinum'". Los Angeles Times. Eddy Hartenstein for the Tribune Company. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved June 4, 2014.
11. Sweeney, Joe (June 4, 2014). "Miranda Lambert: Platinum". PopMatters. Archived from the original on June 6, 2014. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
12. Hermes, Will (June 1, 2014). "Miranda Lambert 'Platinum' Album Review". Rolling Stone. Jann Wenner. ISSN 0035-791X. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
13. Hyman, Dan (June 1, 2014). "Miranda Lambert, 'Platinum' Review". Spin. Spin Media. ISSN 0886-3032. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
14. Shriver, Jerry (June 1, 2014). "Miranda Lambert's 'Platinum' sounds golden". USA Today. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
15. "Reviews for Platinum". Metacritic. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
16. Caramanica, Jon (June 2, 2014). "Miranda Lambert, Country’s Sophisticated Radical". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
17. "Platinum". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
18. Christgau, Robert (March 10, 2015). "Excuses, Excuses: The 2014 Dean’s List". The Barnes & Noble Review. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
19. Stephen L. Betts (November 5, 2014). "Miranda Lambert's 'Platinum' Wins CMA Album of the Year". RollingStone.
20. "57th Grammy Nominees". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Publishing. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
21. Caulfield, Keith (11 June 2014). "Miranda Lambert Earns First No. 1 Album On Billboard 200". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
22. "Weekly Music Sales Report and Analysis for June 11, 2014". ajournalofmusicalthings.com. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
23. Bjorke, Matt (November 30, 2015). "Top 10 Country Albums Chart: November 30, 2015". Roughstock. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
24. "Australiancharts.com – Miranda Lambert – Platinum". Hung Medien.
25. "Miranda Lambert – Chart history" Billboard Canadian Albums Chart for Miranda Lambert.
26. "Archive Chart". UK Albums Chart. The Official Charts Company. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
27. "Miranda Lambert – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Miranda Lambert.
28. "Miranda Lambert – Chart history" Billboard Top Country Albums for Miranda Lambert.
29. "Billboard 200 Albums: Year-End top-selling albums across all genres". Billboard.
30. "Top Country Albums: 2014 Year-End Charts". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
31. "Billboard 200 Albums: Year-End top-selling albums across all genres". Billboard. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
32. "Top Country Albums: 2015 Year-End Charts". Billboard. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
33. "American album certifications – Miranda Lambert – Platinum". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH

External links

• Platinum at Discogs (list of releases)