Nikki Lane - Highway Queen

Vinyl LP pressing includes digital download. Nikki Lane's remarkably dazzling third album Highway Queen, 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, TX and Nashville, TN, 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").