The Top 10 Everything of 2009

"I got a mouth like a sailor, and yours is more like a Hallmark card," snarls Lambert on "Only Prettier," one of several songs that cement her role as Nashville's best tough chick. Her vengeful side gets plenty of play on Revolution — there's a dig at country radio as well as a scorched-earth love song co-written with her boyfriend, Blake Shelton — but there are also prolonged episodes of maturity, from the pointed cover of Fred Eaglesmith's "Time to Get a Gun" to "Dead Flowers," a song that proves she can build an emotionally convincing performance atop even the lamest of metaphors. With each album Lambert gets better — and inches closer to becoming country's next great superstar.