Nikki Lane "Highway Queen" Black or Clear w/ Blue+Brown Swirl (2017/2022)

Details: Nikki Lane "Highway Queen" Black (2017) or Clear with Blue and Brown Swirl (RP 2022), New West Records. New stock, sealed. Original OR repress in color vinyl.

Description: "Nikki Lane’s remarkably dazzling third album Highway Queen (2017), sees the young Nashville rebel emerge as one of country and rock’s most gifted songwriters. Produced by Lane and fellow singer-songwriter Jonathan Tyler, and recorded in Denton, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, Highway Queen is an emotional tour-de-force. Blending potent lyrics, unbridled blues guitars, and vintage Sixties country-pop swagger, Lane’s new music will resonate as easily with Black Keys and Lana Del Rey fans as those of Neil Young and Tom Petty.

Highway Queen starts with the whiskey-soaked restlessness of “700,000 Rednecks,” a rowdy call to action, and ends on the profoundly raw “Forever Lasts Forever,” where Lane belts freely, mourning a failed marriage – the “lighter shade of skin” left behind from her wedding ring. Lane’s journey to heartbreak takes exquisite turns. “Companion” is pure Everly Brothers’ dreaminess (“I would spend a lifetime/ Playing catch you if I can”). Elsewhere, she goes on a Vegas bender on the rollicking “Jackpot,” fights last-call blues (“Foolish Heart”), and tosses off brazen one-liners at a backroom piano (“Big Mouth”)."

Grade: M (new stock)

TRACK LISTING SIDE A:

A1. 700,000 Rednecks
A2. Highway Queen
A3. Lay You Down
A4. Jackpot
A5. Companion

TRACK LISTING SIDE B:

B1. Big Mouth
B2. Foolish Heart
B3. Send The Sun
B4. Muddy Waters
B5. Forever Lasts Forever