MIRANDA LAMBERT - "Sunset Marquis" - MCA Records

Miranda Lambert has never sounded like an artist particularly interested in staying inside the lines, but “Sunset Marquis” finds her erasing a few of them altogether. The latest glimpse of Crisco trades the familiar vocabulary of contemporary country for something looser and more nocturnal: a song built on sway, shimmer and the suggestion that a good night might be measured less by where it ends than by how long you can keep it going.

Released August 7, “Sunset Marquis” takes its name from the legendary West Hollywood hotel that has been part of Lambert’s life for nearly two decades. But this isn’t a song that simply name-checks a glamorous destination. Lambert turns the hotel into a character of sorts—a place suspended between eras, where musicians, actors and other creative misfits have gathered and where the possibility of an unexpected encounter seems permanently built into the walls.

Musically, the song’s ’70s influence isn’t confined to an aesthetic flourish; it shapes the tune’s entire physical presence. The groove glides rather than pushes, giving Lambert room to ride the rhythm instead of overpowering it. There is country DNA in the songwriting, but the pulse belongs just as comfortably to a disco record. The result doesn’t sound like Lambert temporarily playing dress-up in another genre. It sounds like she has found a room in country music that was there all along and decided to switch on the mirror ball.

That distinction matters. Country and disco aren’t nearly as incompatible as their stereotypes might suggest. Both can be built around memorable melodies, strong personalities and the simple pleasure of a song that makes you want to move. Lambert recognizes that common ground and exploits it without turning “Sunset Marquis” into a novelty experiment.

Her vocal is a major reason the song holds together. Lambert doesn’t attack the melody with the force that has powered some of her biggest heartbreak songs. Instead, she sounds amused, relaxed and slightly mischievous, as though she’s letting the listener in on a particularly good secret. That change in posture gives the song its sophistication. She’s not trying to convince us that the night is magical; she sounds like someone who already knows it is.

The accompanying visualizer reinforces that atmosphere, with Lambert appearing in a Cat O’Nine bodysuit alongside a vintage red convertible illuminated by neon, extending the song’s retro-Hollywood fantasy into another medium. The track will also appear in If These Walls Could Rock, a documentary about the Sunset Marquis scheduled to reach digital platforms August 14.

 “Sunset Marquis” also gives Crisco a particularly revealing preview of where Lambert is headed. Due October 2 via MCA, the 12-track set finds her working alongside co-producer Jesse Frasure to explore a broader palette of country influences, with “Sunset Marquis” occupying the album’s final slot. After the title track, “Till The Going’s Gone” and “A Song To Sing” with Chris Stapleton, the new single suggests that Lambert’s idea of country has plenty of room for a little late-night glitter.

More importantly, the song suggests that Crisco may be less a reinvention than a liberation. Lambert isn’t abandoning country; she’s testing how much territory the genre can occupy when its borders stop being treated as fixed. “Sunset Marquis” makes a convincing case that a country song can have rhinestones in its eyes, a disco beat under its boots and still know exactly where it came from.

The song’s greatest pleasure is its refusal to hurry. It feels like the musical equivalent of finding a booth in a legendary bar, ordering one more drink and realizing nobody has asked you to leave. For Lambert, that’s a welcome kind of freedom. “Sunset Marquis” doesn’t merely invite listeners into a famous hotel—it invites them into a different version of Miranda Lambert, one that seems increasingly comfortable following the groove wherever it leads.

(Review Written By: Chad Carlson)