Review Summary: A frustratingly weak showing from an icon who deserves so much more.
Shania Twain is a country music legend. That much cannot be disputed. She was an artistic and cultural force at the turn of the millennium that cemented for her a unique and singular footnote in the genre's history. Her 1997 album
Come On Over is certified
double diamond and spawned
twelve singles, including a batch of iconic staples such as "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" and "You're Still The One." The former track is one of the first I can remember enjoying in the earliest days of my conscious life. Her impact can't be overstated. Taylor f*cking Swift attributed her ability to famously crossover to pop in 2014 to Shania first being a genre-blending powerhouse. For as much as she's earned a long-winded preamble, such isn't entirely necessary. You
have to know the name and the face and if you don't, where the f*ck have you been hibernating?
I heap all this praise, being as terse as possible, because there's an uncomfortable reality surrounding her latest album
Little Miss Twain, and it's not something I think anyone takes pleasure in talking about; the album is not good. It's not all her fault, in fairness. She contracted Lyme disease in 2003 and the ailment has stripped her of her once formidable vocal talents. What scant bit she can produce is drowned out, and compensated for, by loud instrumentals, awkward stylistic choices and layered vocal tracks. The single "Dirty Rosie" is probably the most evident of this. Twain's already plain vocals, which are recitative and not really sung at all, are caked under unflattering filters with tryhard lyrics to match. The short, punchy nature of the tune is ostensibly designed to bail her out from having to try her rear off when she's not able to, but you can only conceal so much diminished acuity. Darn shame, because the accompanying music/lyric video has a cool aesthetic, and Twain looks absolutely stunning for her age. She is
still an icon, no matter what.
"Down the Middle" is an example of a track that has potential yearning to be unlocked, but requires more capable hands. Twain's vocals are again buried under a separate vocal track, that makes her own voice even more indistinct and hard to find. For my estimation, it deprives the affair of some of its intended personality, which it otherwise does have on account of the glassy guitar slicks and quaintly percussive structure. Twain actually musters a perilously small serving of her old magic on "I'd Be Loving Me," where she employs some alto, and her overall vocal, while not door-busting or eye-popping, is pleasant enough. Apparently, the song was co-written by Tyler Carter, the former lead vocalist for the defunct metalcore band Issues. Do with that information what you wish.
Twain deserves props for still getting out there and doing the damn thing. As mentioned, her legacy is secure, and the music alone, however middling it might be, couldn't chip away at that in a million years. Nevertheless, however, said output is nothing to write home about. It remains to be seen if she has anything of true substance left to say as this late career juncture presses on, and again, she is owed the consideration that her Lyme disease diagnosis is largely to blame for any failures on the part of her voice. But we gotta call balls and strikes here.
Little Miss Twain is sadly, disappointingly
poor.
