The Weight of These Wings
The Weight of These Wings is the sixth studio album by American country music artist Miranda Lambert. It was released on November 18, 2016, via RCA Records Nashville. The album consists of two discs, with Disc 1 titled The Nerve, and Disc 2 titled The Heart.[1] The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart and No. 3 on the all-genre US Billboard 200 chart,[2] and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[3] In addition to winning Album of the Year at the 2017 ACM Awards,[4] it is considered by several music publications as one of the best albums of the year. In 2020, the album was ranked at 480 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.[5]
The Weight of These Wings
November 18, 2016
2015–16
The Casino, Nashville, Tennessee
94:01
- RCA Nashville
- Vanner
- Frank Liddell
- Eric Masse
- Glenn Worf
Background and music[edit]
In an August 2016 interview with Billboard, Lambert stated she had been working on the album for a year, which included writing and recording. She admitted she was nervous about her new music since she had mostly stayed quiet while writing it.[6] Songwriter Luke Dick was one of the musicians who worked on the album. He co-wrote "Highway Vagabond" with Natalie Hemby and Shane McAnally. He found the line "I want to go somewhere nobody knows; and I want to know somewhere that nobody goes" while waiting at a deli and not willing to mix with other people. This became a road song with the word "vagabond" at the center, with a production sounding like country Siouxsie and the Banshees.[7]
The album's content is about her divorce with Blake Shelton and her subsequent relationship with Anderson East.[8]
Commercial performance[edit]
The Weight of These Wings debuted at number one on the Billboard Country Albums chart and number three on the all-genre US Billboard 200 chart, moving 133,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release.[2][44] It sold 122,000 copies, with the remainder of its unit total reflecting the album's streaming activity and track sales.[2] It is Lambert's fifth straight album to debut in the top ten of the Billboard 200, following Platinum (number one, 2014), Four the Record (number three, 2011), Revolution (number eight, 2009) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (number six, 2007).[2] In its second week of release, the album moved 36,000 units and fell to number nine.[45] Following the 52nd Academy of Country Music Awards on April 2, 2017, where Lambert won multiple awards and performed "Tin Man", the album moved 31,000 units, including 23,000 in pure sales, and jumped from number 192 to number 12 on the Billboard 200 chart.[46] The album was certified Platinum on July 10, 2017,[3] and it has sold 438,600 copies in the US as of August 2018.[47]