Shania Twain is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She has sold over 100 million records, making her the best-selling female artist in country music history and among the best-selling music artists of all time. She has released five albums the first entitled ‘Shania Twain’ in 1993, the second ‘The Woman in Me’ in 1995, followed by ‘Come On Over’ in 1997 and Up! In 2002 then there was a sizeable gap before this latest entry that I’ll be reviewing, which is called ‘Now’ and was released in 2017.
‘Swingin’ With My Eyes Closed’ is a strong opening track, clearly the troubles with her voice are a thing of the past because she knocks it out of the park with this track. Its lively, well balanced and has some tight instrumental sections.
‘Home Now’ opens with some chords that seem inspired by traditional Chinese music, or maybe I just have a bad ear but that’s what I thought anyway. Twain’s voice in this track is strong, and I really liked this track, it has a nice rhythm to it.
‘Light of My Life’ opens with soft guitars and is a far more melancholic track than the previous two, this is one of those songs that fills a room, you can just sit back and let her voice wash over you. I think this is one of my personal favourites on the album, it might be a little bit slow but their are uplifting notes throughout that pick it up.
‘Poor Me’ opens with a nice little guitar riff, and then Twain starts singing, this song is another slow one but it feels more like a break up track than the last one, so you hear the more aggressive undertones. I’m not sure if it just suits her voice better but so far these slower tracks are the best thing on the album.
‘Who’s Gonna Be Your Girl’ is a beautiful song, I think out of the first few tracks this shows off her voice the most. I like how this track is broken down, the harmony between the instrumental sections and the vocal parts. I think this also earns a spot on my favourites for the album.
‘More Fun’ opens with a nice little piano riff that to me seems cheery, I suppose to contrast with the song itself. Much like ‘Poor Me’ this has a more aggressive edge at times which I feel just confronts the listener and makes you listen, she’s trying to tell you something.
‘I’m Alright’ is a little different again, her hauntingly beautiful voice is backed up a consistent drumbeat that takes on the qualities of a heartbeat as the track continues. This is a powerful track that talks about coming out the other side of something hard and being okay…well alright.
‘Roll Me On the River’ kicks off with a lot more energy than the last few tracks, it has a lot more bounce to it, there are sections which slow down and sound more like what she’s done elsewhere on the track but they balance out well with the more lively sections.
‘We Got Something They Don’t’ opens really nicely, a blend of piano and percussion, that builds up well till Twain joins them. T
‘You Can’t Buy Love’ has a lot of swing to it and it reminded me of Valerie (the version with Amy Winehouse) at least in the intro. I think in terms of style this track stands out among the other tracks in the album, but it does follow the narrative of the album as a whole. Not to mention its a bloody great track.
‘Life’s About To Get Good’ is an upbeat track, more energy than some of the tracks on this album but it follows the established narrative of the rest of the tracks which all talk about success and failure, of the good and bad and persevering, because as this song suggests…life is about to get good.
‘Soldier’ opens with a piano, the chords suggest another slow and melancholic song for the closer track and Twain doesn’t disappoint, she hits out with another beautiful song that demonstrates her voice at its best.
You can check out the album on Spotify and you can keep up to date with Shania Twain via Facebook and Twitter.
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