3.5/5
Man! I Feel Like A Queen!
Let's go again, girls! Where the legend of Dolly Parton and the mainstream millions of Taylor Swift meet, you get country icon Shania Twain. Ready to rock again, more than a half decade after 'Now'. The comeback was already complete then, impressing us much. But now after a pandemic lockdown and recovery from surgery and a major illness, the 'Come Away With Me', diamond 'Best Friend' singer is back to take the throne as the 'Queen Of Me'. Saddling up on all the pretty horses for her sixth studio album. Unbridled with powerful passion and anthems of women's empowerment that show the former poster-star of country music is 'Not Just A Girl'. No doubt, like Stefani.
Before Taylor and Gaga, there was her. And she is that icon in star-studded Stetsons that spangle for the States. This Canadian crossed the border, due south and made her name in more than just one genre like Nashville. Tailor made. Twain still knows how to twang out a hit on the old guitar too. Add 'Giddy Up! ' to her greatest hits and your next hoe down. Singing along to this exclamation, "Time to make it happеn 'cause it feels so good/Singin' in the mirror like it's Hollywood/Lifе is gettin' shorter, gotta drink it up/Time to shine like I know you should/Slide to the left, then slide to the right/Jump in the air 'til you're ten feet high, yeah/Come on, come on and make it your night/Smiles for miles/All up on my face (My face)/Wear it, share it/'Cause we ain't got time to waste (Get to it)." The perfect elixir to get you out of your seat and on your feet. Lifting your malaise out the doldrums of a New Year this February (already?!) with the first major album release of 2023.
Yet, it's the first single 'Waking Up Dreaming' that's really catchy, striking a chord as you wipe your eyes. With "Way up higher than we've ever been/No, we won't stop at the ceilin' (Ooh)/So let's keep wakin' up dreamin" and all the sing-a-long "whoa, oh, whoas", this is what it feels like to be in the beauty of a boundless love. And why not sing about it? You only have to read Shania Twain's amazing autobiography (named after one of her biggest and best hits, 'From This Moment On') to see that it's been a long and winding road, concrete tough. Enduring enough over the last few years to write another moving memoir too. Departing her record label (Mercury Nashville) of almost 30 years. Overcoming dysphonia and Lyme disease and almost losing that incredible and important voice. "I'm not a girl, I'm not a boy/I'm not a baby, I'm not a toy/I'm a queen/No, I don't need a king, so keep the ring/I've got the gold in my chest (gold in my chest)/A heart that can sing/I'm a queen", she declares with authority on the title-track that also serves as an affirmation to those who run the world. Consider the world tour she's about to embark on as a victory lap.
'Not Just A Girl' indeed, like the name of a Netflix documentary you can put next to the Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Jennifer Lopez ones. Or her sign-off compilation from Mercury that shows Shania has more hits than Serena's racquet. That title also being a standout here. The penultimate track before the closer and our save the best for last favourite of the set, 'The Hardest Stone'. "Hold me, but don't you hold me down/Changе is gonna come/But my patience running out/Madе a decision/What the dictionary's/Missing is my definition/I'm not just a four-letter word", is your new quotable like "do, do, do" from the woman in me who sings, "I solved the mystery/That was it for me" from the stone. La, da, da.
Jack Savoretti co-writes the scorching 'Last Day Of Summer' to put a spring in your winter's step. It's hard to feel discontent with the enchanting queen of electric power-pop ballads. You can 'Inhale/Exhale' and breathe the 'AIR' of this album and even enjoy some Target and JPC bonus cuts ('On Three' and 'Done and Dusted' for your one, two). Much impressed, this feels like a 'Number One'. Even with the "pants on fire" child's play of 'Pretty Liar' that then drops an F-bomb as strange as the time Will Smith dropped it (but with meaning for the moving 'Tell Me Why' with Mary J. Blige). But this queen can do whatever the f### she wants. She doesn't need any man to tell her what to do. No woman does.
Twain changed the game when she flipped the script on Robert Palmer's infamous 'Addicted To Love' video and made it her iconic own for her huge hit 'Man! I Feel Like A Woman'. You might as well face it, she made empowering groundbreaking strides for gender equality way before the mainstream made it easy to do. All without the following of a social media army behind her too. You best believe the pioneer has one now though. Feeling 'Brand New'. She's 'Got It Good' like, "The heartaches, and the mistakes/I'll be there, I understand (I understand you)/Babe, don't bе afraid (don't be afraid)/To give me your hand." Getcha by golly, wow! Don't say "welcome back, Shania" like a lovely Lionel Richie on their 'Tuskegee' remake of his 'Endless Love' classic. The Queen of Country Pop has been HER for years. 100 million albums sold and streaming for one of the bestsellers by the record books. Count it! TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Giddy Up! ', 'Not Just A Girl', 'The Hardest Stone'.
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