Band: The Chicks
Album: Gaslighter
Year: 2020
Label: Sony
If there's anything good that has come out of 2020, it's that The Chicks, who removed "Dixie" from their name due to ties to the South, have come out with their first album in over a decade Gaslighter. I've been a fan since the early 2000's, when they were banned by conservatives for saying they were "ashamed Bush is from Texas." In 2014 I watched them in Concert and was incredibly impressed; they were the best live performace I've been to. Loved shouting "Goodbye Eaaaaaaaarl!" with thousands of fellow fans.
So hot that Natalie Maines ex husband, heroes actor Adrian Pasdor, sued to try to block its inevitable release, Gaslighter is a no-holding-anything-back album about Maine's & Pasdor's messy split.
Gaslighter, released on Youtube prior to the album's release, is an explosive lead single that paves the way for a brutally honest, emotionally charged album that will leave you drained by the last song. Melding vengeance with vulnerability, Gaslighter nearly completely abandons The Chicks' former country style (who can blame them country allows songs about men loving their pickup trucks?) for a more contemporary pop appeal. Their music only improves because of it.
Amid the wreckage of catchy (I've listened to Gaslighter, the single, over 20x) divorce anthems, we also get a solid Black Lives Matter song March March and a few numbers (Tights on My Boat) with some good wit peppered within them. My main criticism of Gaslighter is that I feel like some tunes can be forgotten about the moment you hear them, unlike their post Bush album Taking the Long Way (2005) This is a good album, but a bit too uneven to be considered "great".
A liberative group of "Chicks", their new music has been stuck in my head for a while now. I can't wait to see them live once this pandemic is over & shout "GASLIGHTEEEEEEEEEER" among a sea of fans. I wish I could buy tickets now!
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