LABEL: New West Records
VINYL RELEASE DATE: 11/18/2022
ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: 02/27/2017
VARIANT: Blue Jean Vinyl LP
2017 release, the third album from singer/songwriter Nikki Lane. 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, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee, Highway Queen is an emotional tour-de-force. Blending potent lyrics, unbridled blues guitars and vintage '60s 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").
