Novelty bands don’t generally make great second albums. The spark of ingenuity that led to their formation is good for one batch of songs and then the members retreat to their solo careers. If they reform again, the results tend to feel forced.

The Traveling Wilbury’s Vol. 3 is the classic example. The album was missing the late Roy Orbison, but that wasn’t the only reason it felt so ordinary when compared to the exceptional Vol. 1. It simply didn’t have the same sense of serendipity that made the first record so special.

Pistol Annies aren’t exactly a supergroup, with Miranda Lambert as the only household name in the lineup. Ashley Monroe and Angeleena Presley are talented, respected singer-songwriters, but most listeners had no idea who they were before the release of Hell On Heels. Still, the band could be seen as a diversion, a side project with which to kill time between “real” albums.

It’s hard to classify it that way, though, when the results are so damn great. Hell On Heels was one of the most critically-acclaimed albums of 2011, even more so than Lambert’s solo release that same year.

Given that success, expectations were high for Pistol Annie’s sophomore effort, Annie Up, released earlier this month. And I’m happy to say it easily meets them.

Lambert, Monroe and Presley clearly don’t view the Annies as a side project. They approach this material with conviction, delivering some of their best songwriting and vocal performances.

This is a darker, more somber record than their debut. ‘Trading One Heartbreak For Another’ is about a woman who kicks out her no-good husband but feels guilty at her son’s confusion about his missing father. ‘Dear Sobriety’ is a mournful ballad about falling off the wagon.

Even the upbeat songs center on sad subjects. Snappy first single ‘Hush Hush’ details an awkward family dinner with a brother who’s just out of rehab. And today’s SOTD is about a marriage that’s so miserable the couple has no choice but to stay together.

It’s interesting that Lambert would write and release a song called ‘Unhappily Married’ amid tabloid rumors that her own marriage to Blake Shelton is on rocky ground. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but I suspect it’s partially her way of giving the finger to those publications.

I don’t know if Annie Up is the equal of its predecessor, but it’s definitely in the ballpark. It makes it clear that Pistol Annies aren’t a novelty act — they’re one of the best bands recording today, regardless of genre.