Like the song, the video for "Automatic" is deliberately nostalgic and makes the case that, just because we've advanced from a technological point of view, we're not necessarily better off as people. The video begins by cutting between scenes of Lambert strumming an acoustic guitar and going through an old chest of treasures in her attic. She pulls out a cassette and reads the song list, her mind taking her back to when she first made that tape. "Seems like only yesterday, I'd get a blank cassette," she sings, "Record the country countdown, 'cause I couldn't buy it yet."

She puts the tape in a boxy old cassette player, presses play and smiles, unleashing a stream of memories that fill the lyrics of the song, including driving "all the way to Dallas/Just to buy an Easter dress," a trip that'd require "tak[ing] along a Rand McNally" (instead of an iPhone) and "stand[ing] in line to pay for gas" (instead of paying at the pump).

These days, that cassette player feels like a clunky way to discover your next favorite song; and online shopping has certainly taken the long-distance drives out of Easter dress shopping. But are we better off? Lambert is not yet convinced.

If "Automatic" has a familiar ring, it should. Nostalgia for things gone by is a common theme throughout country music. In fact, the point of view Lambert adopts in "Automatic" appears to almost deliberately echo that of the 1982 Merle Haggard classic "Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver)," in which Haggard pines for the days "before microwave ovens" when "Coke was still Cola and a joint was a bad place to be."