The Woman Me [Diamond Edition] [Crystal Clear LP] in Bloomington, MN

Sometimes, all it takes for a singer to break it big is to have the right collaborator and nowhere is that truth more evident than with
Shania Twain
. After years of independent local releases and demo records, she released an OK major-label debut on
Mercury
in 1993 -- a record that was perfectly fine but not all that memorable. Not long after that, her path crossed with
Robert John "Mutt" Lange
's, the producer behind some of the greatest albums in
hard rock
history, including
AC/DC
's
Back in Black
and
Def Leppard
Hysteria
. Based on that,
Lange
didn't seem like an ideal match for
Twain
, but they turned out to be expertly matched collaborators -- and romantic partners, too; they married as they were working on the material that became her second album,
The Woman in Me
. Together, they totally reworked
, turning her into a bold, brassy, sexy, sassy modern woman, singing songs that play like tongue-in-cheek empowerment anthems even when they're about heartbreak. She demands that "Any man of mine/better walk the line," tells a poor sap that
"(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!"
and when she confronts her lover asking
"Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?"
it sounds like a threat, not a lament. All these songs are painted in big, broad strokes and
uses all the arena-filling tricks he's learned from
, giving these steady rhythms and melodic hooks that are crushed only by the mammoth choruses which drill their way into permanent memory upon the first listen. That's not to say that
is nothing but heavy-handed
pop
/rockers dressed as
country
tunes -- they are good at
ballads
like the title song, but they're even more impressive on
"No One Needs to Know,"
as swinging slice of neo-
Bakersfield country
so good you'd swear that
Dwight Yoakam
is singing harmony. And that speaks to the skill of
as a producer -- this is surely
influenced, but he doesn't push it too far, for no matter how many
rock
tricks are in the production or how poppy the tunes are, they still feel like
songs, especially on
"Any Man of Mine"
anthems for the post-
"Boot Scootin' Boogie"
era, when
slowly, steadily became the sound of middle-American
adult pop
.
Garth Brooks
started the ball rolling, but this is where the movement gained momentum, and although this isn't pure
, it is
in how it sounds and feels, particularly in how it captures the stance and attitude of the modern women, thanks in no small part to
who plays this part to a hilt. And, like all the best
productions, it's so exquisitely crafted from the songs to the sound that it's not only an instant pleasure, it's a sustaining one. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine