I’m still somewhat amazed neither Shania Twain nor Garth Brooks
\ntook the Grammy for Best Country Album. (Taking nothing away from
\nthe Dixie Chicks, but this category had recently been dominated by
\nthe previous two. Add to that the massive amount of following and
\npublicity – goes to show you that sometimes the Grammy people don’t
\nlook at Billboard and pick winners from the charts). In any case,
\nyou can make a pretty good case that this album is as much a POP
\nalbum as it is a country album. I’ll explain some of that.<\/p>\n
If this album owes anything to anyone, it owes a lot of itself
\nto its producer, Robert John “Mutt” Lange. That’s right, the guy
\nbehind such big rock albums as AC\/DC’s
\nBack In Black<\/i> and Def Leppard’s
\nHysteria<\/i> took the throne behind a country album. Actually,
\nthis was the second time “Mutt” produced an album for Shania – he
\nwas behind the smash
\nThe Woman In Me<\/i>. (While he was at it, he also married the
\ngirl. Not bad).<\/p>\n
Why do I say that this album owes a lot to “Mutt”? Well, not
\nonly does he produce the album, he co-wrote all of the songs with
\nMs. Twain. This gave the album a very pop-oriented feel. From the
\nopening track, “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” to “If You Want To Touch
\nHer Ask!” and “I’m Holding On To Love (To Save My Life)” the songs
\nare easily accessible and likeable. In fact, they’re very
\naccessible three minute tracks.<\/p>\n
Also, while the album features a lot of “country qualities” –
\nviolins, twangy guitars – they are not used in the classic
\ntradition. All of the instruments and back-up vocalists do one
\nthing: Back up Twain. It is her show and she struts in like the
\nowner of the joint. She claps, woos, and leads the band in a
\nfashion very similar to a ringmaster. And Lange’s production helps
\nShania come out as the center of attention.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the album does have some very nice ballads. “From
\nThis Moment On” is quite good–both the album version (with Bryan
\nWhite) and the single version–and this reviewer actually prefers
\nit to the other big ballad, “You’re Still The One.” It was that
\nsong that broke this album through and through the roof. However,
\nlike some people, I do have a problem hearing this song and
\nthinking he was singing about the guy she had recently divorced. In
\nthe meantime, “Black Eyes, Blue Tears” is very honest and
\nthoughtful.<\/p>\n
The biggest problem I have with the album is that the
\nover-abundance of songs. From some artists, I don’t mind that. (No,
\nI actually do.) There are two simple mistakes artists can make on
\nan album–not putting enough songs or putting too much. At 16
\ntracks, this album gets loaded down. Stuff like “You’ve Got A Way”
\nand the title track don’t help the album, but slow it down. Had I
\nbeen Lange, I would have selected the top 11-12 songs and released
\nthe rest as B-sides. But that’s just me.<\/p>\n
Overall, the album is a very good pop album. While those extra
\nsongs do lower its momentum, the album combines country and rock
\nand pop. (By the way, the Australian version features a different
\narrangement and cover shot of Twain). It’s going to be interesting
\nto see what Twain does to top this album – especially without
\nLange’s help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":27337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6155],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38702","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-shania-twain","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38702"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}