Ah…Shania. I well remember first discovering her on a Top of the Pops 2 special, way back in 1999. I remember thinking how she was just one of those people who had everything. Not only did she happen to be an incredibly beautiful woman, but she could play guitar and, of course, she had that distinctive, powerful voice. I might have fallen a bit in love.
At that time, Shania was dominating the charts with her record-breaking album Come On Over, which spawned such iconic mega hits as ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’, ‘You’re Still the One’ and ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman’, which was complimented by quite possibly the most memorable video in pop history. Come On Over was followed by 2002’s Up!, which once again produced a plethora of hit singles. But, following this album and the subsequent world tour, she promptly fell off the map.
Much water has passed under the bridge in the thirteen years since that tour. On top of some well documented changes in her private life, Shania contracted Lyme Disease which attacked her vocal cords, threatening the loss of her singing voice.
Happily however, her vocal cords were not beyond repair and with some determination her voice was restored, albeit with a slightly deeper tone than we had been accustomed to. She later embarked on a successful run of shows at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas between 2012-2014, followed by a North American tour during 2015. Eventually, she got around to writing some new songs and the result is Now, her first original studio album in some fifteen years. And if you were expecting the light-hearted, happy-go-lucky Shania of years gone by, this is something almost completely different.
Though there are one or two subtle hints of the bubbly country-pop of her previous albums in songs such as ‘Swingin’ With My Eyes Closed’, Now is a brooding, soul searching affair. Many, if not all of the songs are written very much from the heart, reflecting on the difficulties and the changes that have occurred in her life over the years leading up to this album. Now without her ex-husband and co-writer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange, Shania has taken it upon herself to write on her own and there are a number of excellent songs on here that do indeed prove what a formidable songwriter she can be. Of particular note are ‘Light of My Life’ with its chorus that will repeat over in your head for days, ‘Poor Me’ and the poignant ‘Soldier’. There are even a couple songs, namely ‘Because of You’ and closing track ‘All in All’, that I can well imagine being sung by the great Emmylou Harris.
Now has its weaker moments, with ‘Roll Me On the River’ and lead single ‘Life’s About to Get Good’ perhaps being examples. But there is one lingering issue I have with this album, and that is the way in which it has been produced. The biggest problem is the use of the dreaded autotune. The modern day charts are flooded with artists using this effect. Whenever I enter a shop or a restaurant, all I ever hear on the jukebox is the robotic sound of somebody’s voice, computerised beyond all recognition. Producers are using autotune on just about every voice in the business now, whether they can sing accurately or not, as a means of achieving absolute perfection. It has become all too common. Here, it is being used on one of the most distinctive voices going and I’m sorry, but with a voice as good as Shania’s, it simply shouldn’t be needed. I want to hear her voice in its natural form. The album is far from a disaster, but this and the rather over-egged production do unfortunately let it down to a certain extent. Producers need to realise that imperfections and inconsistencies are a part of what makes music special and genuine, and artists should never allow commercial demands and trends to dictate how their music is produced.
I love Shania. She’s still the one. As I alluded to earlier, she has certainly proved here that she is an excellent songwriter in her own right and as evidenced by her recent appearance at Hyde Park, she is still as brilliant a performer as she ever was. I very much hope she’ll continue making records in the not too distant future, but I would just love to hear something more band-orientated and rootsy from her the next time around. The building blocks are there.
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Mike's Musical Musings 