Shania Twain- Queen of Me
Label: Republic
Producers: Shania Twain, Mark Ralph, David Stewart, Mark Crew, Daniel Priddy, Adam Messinger, Tyler Joseph
The legendary and undisputed gold-standard for post-millennium country-pop returns with her sixth studio release, the first follow-up to 2017’s long-awaited Now. That record, Shania Twain’s first in fifteen years, brought with it incredible pressure and speculation given its distinction as her first album since losing both her physical voice to Lyme’s Disease, and her ex-husband and creative partner, Mutt Lange. With that milestone album behind her, Queen of Me immediately carries with it a much more relaxed and liberated spirit. The overall vibe and sound, both in terms of the production and Twain’s vocal expression and delivery, all carry an overwhelming sense of joy and exuberance. You can sense how much pure enjoyment she had in recording these songs, and in exploring new avenues to take both her songwriting and undeniably changed voice. She leans hard into her pop leanings, and in many ways, the result is the first pure dance album of her career. Opening cut and current single, “Giddy Up” revisits the most line-dancey aspects of her mid 90s country stompers, while “Waking Up Dreaming” dives deep into 80s electro-pop. And when lead producer and British hitmaker Mark Ralph takes over, he leads Twain into a shameless wall of synth-driven EDM on dizzying and addictive tracks like the title cut, “Pretty Liar”, “Got It Good” and especially the Britney-leaning banger, “Number One”. There are certainly moments when this genre’s affection for vocal processing and overproduction get too heavy handed, with the otherwise delightful “Inhale/Exhale Air” being the most obvious example. They still succeed overall thanks to their sheer buoyancy and Twain’s unflappable personality. However, splendidly more folk-oriented, country-pop moments like “Last Day of Summer”, “Brand New” and “Not Just A Girl” illustrate just how alluring and soulful her evolved voice truly is when given the added space to breathe. And when she closes the album with another sonic pivot, this time toward alt-rock with the Twenty One Pilots collab “The Hardest Stone”, she leaves us additionally curious as to where her next batch of genre concoctions will take her. It caps off a record that is colorful in all its curiosity, and all the better for the fact that it unflinchingly owns that fact every step of the way. But above anything, Queen of Me ultimately triumphs thanks to the palpable joy and gratitude that Shania Twain outwardly feels for the opportunity to simply be creating music again. She clearly still has plenty to say and explore in this renaissance period of her career.
Track Listing:
- “Giddy Up!” (Shania Twain, David Stewart, Samuel Romans, Jessica Agombar)
- “Brand New” (Twain, Wayne Hector, Mark Crew, Dan Priddy)
- “Waking Up Dreaming” (Twain, Stewart, Agombar)
- “Best Friend” (Twain, Crew, Priddy, Tom Mann)
- “Pretty Liar” (Twain, Adam Messinger)
- “Inhale/Exhale Air” (Twain, Ralph, Iain Archer)
- “Last Day of Summer” (Twain, Ralph, Jack Savoretti)
- “Queen of Me” (Twain, Messinger)
- “Got It Good” (Twain, Ralph, Georgia Barnes)
- “Number One” (Twain, Ralph, Eja Lange)
- “Not Just A Girl” (Twain, Ralph, Hector)
- “The Hardest Stone” (Twain, Tyler Joseph)
The 706 