Listen: Miranda Lambert reminisces in new single 'Automatic'

By Mikael Wood

Feb. 6, 2014 1:41 PM PT

Don’t call it a throwback -- she’s just recalling old years.

Miranda Lambert released a new single Wednesday, the first sampling from a new studio album the country star is preparing for release sometime in 2014.

But if “Automatic” seems steeped in the kind of simple-days nostalgia that defines so much Nashville fare at the moment -- think of Jason Aldean’s “1994” or “Rewind” by Rascal Flatts -- Lambert insists her tune is different.

“It’s not about going back, but reminiscing about what it was like to hang laundry on the line and wait for it to dry and my dad teaching me how to drive my ’55 Chevy that I still have but don’t drive nearly enough,” she said in a statement on her website. “The song brings back good memories and it reminds me to take a deep breath and to remember that getting there is half the fun.”

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Pop & Hiss isn’t quite sure what distinguishes Lambert’s approach from those she seems eager to disavow -- especially since “Automatic” sounds (at least after a few spins) significantly more ordinary than anything on her last album, 2011’s consistently surprising “Four the Record.”

But it’s got a chorus, that much we’ll admit. Have a listen below.