A flawed comeback record
It’s a miracle that Shania Twain is making music again after her struggles with lyme disease and dysphonia. Queen of Me is her second comeback record following 2017’s Now, and it goes even further into pop than ever before. There’s nothing wrong with this on paper, and Twain was never a gritty country singer to begin with. But the attempts to fuse her increasingly weak voice with hi-fi production and pop elements are misguided at best, painful at worst. There are enough hooks to keep it afloat, but the album ends infuriatingly by showcasing a different path that would’ve worked better.
Twain’s sad history of throat issues is present across nearly every song. Her sweet pop-diva croon has faded, and the album lathers on the auto-tune and pitch correction to try to salvage it. As a result, she sounds stiff, gurgling every syllable and struggling to convey warmth. The opener, “Giddy Up!” might be a little stiff, but the hook is good and rousing enough to soundtrack plenty of line dances. “Last Day of Summer” gets the closest to a folk sound, with a nice post-chorus of violins and elegant backing vocals to sell the lovestruck memories at the song’s core.
Some of the tracks lack lyrical depth. Everyone remembers “That Don’t Impress Me Much” for the instantly quotable spoken-word put-downs. Sadly, the main tenet here is shallow inspirational girl power held back by her attempts at defiance and baffling vocal arrangements. The aspirations of “Brand New” are shackled by a shrill stacking of vocals; “Not Just A Girl” has lackluster post-chorus whistling (with nowhere near the impact of No Doubt’s similarly titled “Just a Girl”), and the title track’s sneering attitude falls apart with its rickety production and processed shouting of “Queen!” The worst offender is “Pretty Liar,” which features Twain saying someone’s pants are on fire over and over, repeating the word “liar” in an attempt at a hook.
Twain’s most recent records were a bit unoriginal: “Poor Me,” from her last album, featured a familiar opening melody which resembled The Chainsmokers’ “Don’t Let Me Down.” Taking obvious influence is not a bad thing, if there’s still some quality. “Waking up Dreaming” follows in the footsteps of “Blinding Lights,” with its driving drumbeat and glittering synths, but it’s a likable groove, the explosion of guitar on the chorus resulting in the album’s best hook. Sadly, the some other examples have less merit. “Best Friend” attempts the doo-wop of Meghan Trainer and “Number One” tries for the catchy disco-lick of Dua Lipa, but Twain is unable to add enough cool slickness to make it work.
The flawed inception of the record comes into focus on one of the better tracks, the closer, “The Hardest Stone.” Cowritten by Tyler Joseph of Twenty-One Pilots, it’s reminiscent of the murky electro-pop of “Chlorine,” with ghostly backing vocals and Twain echoing across the instrumentation. It showcases a direction that is alien to her, yet one that might’ve played better to her attributes as a singer. Going for a clean sound forces her to undergo so much post-production that it becomes distracting. On the other hand, a rawer music backdrop lets her leverage her rougher tone to portray angst or misery effectively. She could use grittier country production, darker modern pop sound, or split the difference with something akin to Morgan Wallen’s “Wasted on You.” Even the auto-tune and pitch correction could turn into a strength by being used to enhance an unstable mood, like what Post Malone does on his darkest songs.
Then again, Twain has more than earned the right to make a record for herself and no one else. If she wants to make upbeat music and chase trends, more power to her. Even with that accommodation, Queen of Me is still mediocre, as it lacks the hooks that could have made it a better record.
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