What The Hell Did They Do to This Shania Twain “Life’s About to Get Good” Song?
My life took a devastating and decidedly palpable turn for the worse when I cued up Shania Twain’s long-awaited new single, “Life’s About To Get Good.” Somewhere Robert “Mutt” Lange is cackling like the Wicked Witch of the West. Did someone pull a practical joke on Shania in the studio? Because this thing’s a stinker, and it’s all the fault of the production.
The back story on “Life’s About To Get Good” and the incredibly long pause in Shania’s output is that she used to be married to her long-time producer, the aforementioned Mutt Lange. Not to get into all of the saucy details, but apparently Mutt was a dog and ran away with one of Shania’s best friends or something? I don’t know, look it up in People Magazine. But either way the super team of Shania and Mutt that had written, recorded, and produced all of those mega hits back 20 some years ago hit Splitsville, and now Shania was out there trying to navigate life and music on her own.
“Life’s About To Get Good” feels very personal to Shania, and to her story in the present tense. Though the song is definitely upbeat more than anything, even to the point of being held back by its off-putting peppiness, it’s about taking a positive perspective on life after you’ve suffered devastating heartbreak—something very easy for listeners to see personally reverberating to Shania, and something most of us can relate to. For a Shania song, the writing and premise is par.
The problem here is that I have never heard a more overly-processed song populate the country music airwaves in history. There may be songs that are decidedly less country, but I’m just talking about the layers upon layers of digitization of Shania’s voice and every other single element in this track to the point that you want to run towards nails on a chalkboard just to clean your audio palette. I mean seriously, what the hell happened here? Heads should roll in Shanialand over the decisions made in the production room. I had to give this thing three or four different listens via different channels, and on different speakers just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.
The vocals and everything else on “Life’s About To Get Good” feel completely fuzzed out, and not in that cool, Tom Waits megaphone kind of way, but from being filtered mercilessly through diodes and capacitors so that listening to it is a serrating experience. The fluffy, spirited banjo and fiddle that have been at the heart of Shania’s pop country songs for years are as present as ever, but sound like they could have been played on synthesizer they’re so transmogrified.
I’ll tell you exactly what happened here. Shania Twain went into the studio and recorded a Shania Twain song: poppy, pretty shallow, superfluous, but harmless mostly, like much of Shania’s output. Then the producer, in this case a guy named Matthew Koma, came in and screwed it all up looking to make a name of himself.
How many times have we seen this play out before in mainstream country recently? A producer from the pop/EDM world shows up to Nashville, is completely clueless to the customs and modes of the genre, and instead of attempting to understand the nuances of the music, demands the sound must evolve in his image, and sets about to do his worst making a harmless pop country song into an audio monstrosity? All the digital filters and bullshit Matthew Koma put on this track are an attempt to mimic the fake, digitally processed distortion and audio decay that’s all the rage in designer drug-induced EDM tracks at the moment.
Ask yourself, when was the last time you saw a woman listed as a producer on a mainstream country track, let alone a female artist allowed to produce her own music? Not even Miranda Lambert is bestowed that level of latitude. The last one I can recall is Taylor Swift’s Red album from 2012—half a decade a go, and that was a pop record. I get it, Shania has always been the one to write the songs and sing them pretty, and relied on others for all the nuts and bolts. Well in this instance, she was let down, and big time by this Matthew Koma character.
Shania Twain putting out a bad track is not something we should cry over because let’s face it, she was never that great to begin with, and was one of the greatest drivers of turning country into pop in the 90’s. But that doesn’t make it any less of a shame to see a track like this get so screwed in the production. The artists, and country producers in Nashville show put their foot down about this incursion of pop and EDM producers into country, and Shania Twain’s “Life’s About To Get Good” is a perfect example why.
jtrpdx
June 15, 2017 @ 11:40 am
Good god. Sounds like Cher’s hit “Do you beliiEEEEEEEEve in life after love?”
Bigbadnurse
October 19, 2022 @ 11:04 pm
Cher used auto tune as a sound effect. She actually can sing. Shanias voice was damaged by illness through no fault of her own. Auto tune is an attempt to process over the serious flaws that doesn’t succeed. I feel for her
Linda Kate
February 24, 2023 @ 5:05 pm
Hmmm .. instead feel for us being subjected to these insipid lyrics against this noise/know when to walk away ST….
Bigbadnurse
December 30, 2023 @ 9:05 pm
Shanias style of music was never my cup of tea but it’s what she enjoys. It must be difficult on a personal level not getting the results she was accustomed to
Daud
June 15, 2017 @ 11:43 am
Actually it’s a bloody good song. Welcome home Shania!
April
October 14, 2017 @ 10:08 am
I have always been a huge Shania fan, but I have to agree wholeheartedly! It isn’t one of those situations where you question what you are hearing; it is pretty clear, right off the bat. It is severely auto-tuned. A singer with her talent and her career should not be auto-tuned like a runner-up of American Idol. I hate this for her, but this is just bad! Bad for her reputation, her career, her fans and our ears. I love the sentiment, she deserves the freedom from the pain and bondage that a broken marriage leaves behind!
April
October 14, 2017 @ 10:09 am
Oops, commented on the wrong post! Sorry, Daud!
Corncaster
June 15, 2017 @ 11:55 am
So I like Shania Twain because she’s pretty and seems like a fun gal who doesn’t take herself too seriously. She can sing and doesn’t sound like everyone else. She also sounds like a woman, not a girl, which is a plus. I also like women who can both stand up for themselves and honestly like men and maleness. Shania, despite her silliness, always got a pass from me.
But she’s also a calculating businesswoman, which is why this single both disappoints and makes sense. It’s disappointing because she could’ve put herself out there as older and wiser with just a guitar. This song would’ve worked that way. But it makes cents for her to go for the bigger market by saying yes to all the EDM drapery.
She could’ve become a savvier more natural street version of Dolly Parton. Instead, she became (or always was) the shallow, funny, but obviously grasping woman. Which is sad, either for a man or a woman.
Bummer.
Scotty J
June 15, 2017 @ 12:05 pm
She sounds so joyless. Think of a pop country song like ‘Happy Girl’ by Martina McBride. She actually sounded like a happy girl singing that song. Her vocal fit the lyric. Here it’s like she is just going through the motion.
At least sound like you think life is about to get good.
Trigger
June 15, 2017 @ 12:50 pm
Maybe Shania performed the song lifeless, but I would like to hear it before they ran her vocal through Auto-tune, enhancers, compressors, umpteen digital filters until we got the result here. I could see that process draining any life out of her voice.
Scotty J
June 15, 2017 @ 1:57 pm
Yeah you may be correct.
Are all the mainstream producers like Tony Brown, Keith Stegall, and even Scott Hendricks just gone from the scene now? I realize times change and people get older and new people come along but this new crop of producers may be the biggest problem going right now.
Erik North
June 15, 2017 @ 7:42 pm
I think there was even a period after her divorce from Mutt Lange when she actually lost her voice for a time. Evidently, not all of it came back, if she had to rely so much on the kind of modern production gimmickry that characterizes almost anything Taylor Swift has done.
Truth be told, Shania has always struck me as a problematic vocalist. Is she as mediocre as Taylor is, or as terrible as Kelsea Ballerini is? No. But the stuff she did in the 1990s not only doesn’t hold up for me, it also barely outpaces the dreck that is on the radio now, including K-Bal’s “Dibs” or “Yeah Boy”, and Jana Kramer’s “Said No One Ever”. Even when it comes to crossing between country and pop, Shania has always come across as, well, calculating, as opposed to someone like Linda Ronstadt, who pulled this kind of crossover thing for much of her career in a totally natural and uncomplicated fashion.
In the end, I don’t think this song will do much, if anything, in any format, country, or pop, Shania may have torpedoed any chance of a comeback here (IMHO).
Ktina
August 7, 2017 @ 6:30 am
She never really had a voice to begin with. She had zero range back in the day and strained to hit a “G”. Mutt made you extremely wealthy so count your blessings and get a hobby. Your writing is terrible. It’s obvious that Lange was the one with the talent.
Mark
June 19, 2017 @ 12:47 pm
suggest you listen to this and maybe re-evalate your opinion of Shania’s voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfHqJqhwAwU
I’d say the dislike of Shania from those who like to tell us which music is authentically country, and which isn’t, is related more to who she is, than what she and Mutt did with their songs and music.
After reading repeated articles here praising Taylor Swift, this article is seems hollow.
Barstool Hero
June 15, 2017 @ 1:14 pm
I’ve seen that most Pop/EDM/new-country producers usually record the song one line at a time for several takes. They take the best performance of each line, then autotune each word or syllable, then correct levels so the lines flow (in terms of volume and peak) until there is no emotion left in the song.
This is just the latest product of the machine. By 2020, the entire process will be automated. Just pick several nouns, verbs, and adjectives from a list, BPM and key, then the computer will spit out something that resembles a song.
Kevin Smith
June 15, 2017 @ 4:09 pm
That’s funny. I don’t care who you are! And then on the extreme opposite, you have a Wayne Hancock album recorded live in the studio with all musicians present and often one take, and no Pro Tools! Ands it’s light years better.
Mike
June 16, 2017 @ 7:39 am
I always liked Shania, not always because she was great, but because her lyrics were generally interesting and she actually seemed like she was having fun. This song isn’t bad, it’s just over-produced, under-performed, and obnoxiously repetitive. The snark in me realized life was definitely about to get good…or at least better… right after the song ended.
Kris
June 15, 2017 @ 12:15 pm
When I got my first computer, way back in the stone age, and was finally able to turn my cds into mp3s, I wanted to see what a song sounded like if you compressed it multiple times. That’s what her vocals sound like here, like the producer ran them through AudioCatalyst over and over again. Shania has a perfectly good voice, not a great voice, but a good one, so why not showcase it?
Of course, in the end, it probably won’t matter. I’m sure it’ll sell well, but I do wonder what she thinks when she hears it.
MH
June 15, 2017 @ 12:21 pm
It’s like the producer tried to overproduce away the fact that Shania is 51 years old.
Ktina
August 7, 2017 @ 6:32 am
I’m 53 and sing rings around this hack.
Jim
June 15, 2017 @ 12:40 pm
What the heck is that sound in the beginning? Under the sea, under the seeaaaaaaa… up there they got a lot of sand, down here we got a hot crustacean band, under the seaaaaaaaa…
Fuzzy TwoShirts
June 15, 2017 @ 12:53 pm
So Shania Twain recorded something awful? you mean like every other song Shania twain has ever recorded?
for those of you who are a bit late to the party:
Shania Twain is not now nor has ever been any semblance of a Country Music singer nor has she recorded any form of substantive music.
period
Corncaster
June 15, 2017 @ 1:17 pm
Are you serious? Her tunes filled dance floors with available women. If she weren’t Canadian, she’d deserve a Congressional medal.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
June 15, 2017 @ 1:27 pm
filling dance floors with available women hardly counts as any indicator of the quality of one’s music. I could fill a trash truck with available women by telling them there’s a coupon for Bed Bath’N’Beyond in one of yeserday’s discarded newspapers. besides no matter how many people like it it’s still pop music on Country airwaves and therefore has about as much belonging as Crab Wontons do at an Arby’s
Corncaster
June 15, 2017 @ 1:31 pm
“hardly counts as any indicator of the quality”
It counts as an indicator of the song’s ability to fill a dance floor, which, if performed, will get musicians paid. They may have to grit their teeth when playing it, and no doubt have.
As an indicator of artistic value? Not so much.
Hayley
June 16, 2017 @ 7:23 am
“I could fill a trash truck with available women by telling them there’s a coupon for Bed Bath’N’Beyond in one of yeserday’s discarded newspapers.”
Good God, this might be the most ddisgustingly sexist comment posted in the history of ever. Grow the fuck up.
Trainwreck92
June 16, 2017 @ 7:47 am
Believe me, Hayley, that was positively mild compared to some of the shit I’ve seen on here. I’m talking about the comment sections of course, not Trigger’s articles.
Spoony
June 17, 2017 @ 12:28 pm
Thin-skinned much? Jesus Christ, calm down, it’s going to be alright.
Honky
June 15, 2017 @ 2:22 pm
Yes, Sir. She was Sam Hunt with a vagina 20 years ago.
Now she’s just an over-the-hill has-been, with a huge, stinking lard butt.
Trainwreck92
June 15, 2017 @ 9:13 pm
“… a huge, stinking lard butt.”? Really, Honkeroni?
Honky
June 16, 2017 @ 3:53 am
Yes. It’s massive. Did you see that live special she did a year or two ago? She was practically waddling around the stage.
Jtrpdx
June 17, 2017 @ 3:54 pm
Great. Now we know that honky is more than just an angry old dude with bad taste in music. He is also into degrading women. A woman who surely looks 100x better than anything he has ever been with. And whos ass is surely 1/4 the size of the trailer queen’s ass he is hitched to.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
June 17, 2017 @ 4:18 pm
If by bad taste in music you mean “knows better than to listen to untalented shallow pop singers who masquerade as Country singers and sing garbage like “Man I feel Like a Woman” then yes he and I have extremely bad taste.
as for one’s taste in women, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
Raymond
June 17, 2017 @ 5:35 pm
No Fuzzy. So what if people like Shania Twain. Why so judgemental? You Make everything you say sound like a fact and I guess it’s just me, but it seems like you are rude and dismissive other people’s opinion.
Also don’t assume Shania Twain is shallow on the inside either. Unless you met the person or see how they act, don’t judge them and make assumptions.
But I digress
Fuzzy TwoShirts
June 17, 2017 @ 7:07 pm
I meant her music not her personality. she seems really nice.
Donny
June 16, 2017 @ 4:38 am
Shania actually does have a few pretty good songs. Her first couple albums are actually pretty decent. Any Man of Mine is actually a hell of a good song I’ll admit it. This is coming from a country traditionalist.
CountryKnight
June 15, 2017 @ 1:05 pm
So it is like any other Shania Twain song? I guess the 1990s never ended after all.
Shania was just a sexier Taylor Swift.
The worst part about her is how she is cited as an influence by nearly every lady singer in Nashville.
Corncaster
June 15, 2017 @ 1:19 pm
She carried the “9 to 5” spirit of Dolly Parton into the 1980s, that’s why.
Unfortunately, that’s probably all she’s got.
-Ed.
June 15, 2017 @ 1:30 pm
Digital phlegm.
Big Texas Mike
June 15, 2017 @ 6:22 pm
Digital vomit. Vomit is warm.
The Lord said: So I will spit you out of my mouth, because you are only warm and not hot or cold. You say, `I am rich and have many things. I need nothing.’
The Ghost of Buckshot Jones
June 15, 2017 @ 1:31 pm
T-pain thinks the autotune is a little overdone on this.
The Ghost of Buckshot Jones
June 15, 2017 @ 1:34 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m6Sw26gUQo
Kale
June 15, 2017 @ 1:46 pm
Will y’all jump down my throat if I admit I like some of her older songs? I think “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” is great.
Scotty J
June 15, 2017 @ 1:51 pm
‘Home Ain’t Where His Heart Is (Anymore)’ , ‘The Woman In Me’ and even ‘You’re Still The One’ are all good songs. And compared to the dreck nowadays they are well written and very country sounding (especially the first two I mentioned).
I would say any quality material she had went down hill dramatically after ‘The Woman In Me’ album.
Dave F
June 15, 2017 @ 6:48 pm
Even the songs on Come On Over were more country than any of the stuff put out by the likes of Sam Hunt.
Adrian
June 16, 2017 @ 9:00 am
I think her best piece of work was the video for “The Woman in Me”. Now that was an example of good production, it showcased her assets very well without showing too much.
I didn’t care for her voice or her songs in general, even back in the day. Shania was a 1980s pop singer who signed with a country label because she was broke and needed a contract, not because she loved country music for its own sake. Now you could argue that many other country artists started out poor and needed a paycheck as much as she did, but at least in those days for some of those artists country was their musical identity. Shania’s relationship with the music and with country’s fans just seemed to be too transactional and superficial.
The songs of hers that have continued to get the most airplay over the years have been the romantic ballads such as “You’re Still the One”. That is a style that does not require a lot of originality or creativity; a sultry voice and a pretty face go a long way. I think she could have had a big career for several albums after “Up!” if she had stuck to those kinds of songs instead of the gimmicky and overproduced pop songs that she seems to prefer.
Warthog
June 15, 2017 @ 7:17 pm
I agree on “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under.”
Also, I would be lying through my teeth if I said Ive never enjoyed singing along to “Any Man of Mine.”
Adrian
June 16, 2017 @ 9:11 am
I didn’t care for the song, I thought it was too much of a marketing gimmick. But I gotta say the bubble bath scene in the video was pretty smoking hot.
I do think “Any Man of Mine” was a well executed marketing concept. It said “girl power” to the gals and “come and get me” to the guys at the same time. There was some communication skill there that has been lost on most of today’s feminists.
Gena R.
June 15, 2017 @ 8:25 pm
“No One Needs to Know” is my fave. 😀
Patrick
June 15, 2017 @ 2:58 pm
When you’re the best selling female country artist with only 4 studio albums, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t give two shits about all the haters’ comments. Anyways, love Shania, this song isn’t the greatest for sure, but it’s definitely a Shania song. She got me into country and then I found other true country artists to like. So she gets a pass from me. Surprised this is on this site too, but love seeing the hater comments. All I know is we get a new Shania album and I’m stoked.
Scott Cason
June 15, 2017 @ 3:31 pm
You want me to post an Adobe Audition screenshot of Reba’s “Back to God” single? It’s like the engineer pushed all the faders on the console as high as they would go and let it fly. Sounds like hammered dog crap when it plays on my radio station. Contacted her people and they seemed genuinely concerned. The label’s response was “we haven’t had any other complaints”. And that’s where it died.
Bertox
June 15, 2017 @ 3:31 pm
Her next single is tentatively titled, “Man! I Feel Like A Granny.” You heard it here first!
Biscuit
June 15, 2017 @ 6:12 pm
Ask Def Lep, when Mutt is gone from the producer’s chair, your recording life is not going to get good.
JB-Chicago
June 16, 2017 @ 10:18 am
For the win!
hoptowntiger94
June 15, 2017 @ 6:16 pm
No matter how low you set the bar, they can’t get over it.
Big Texas Mike
June 15, 2017 @ 6:19 pm
“About to get good”? Idealization and devaluation.
She ain’t good unless she’s standing up for what’s right, not holed up like a media pet. Celebrity don’t mean a thing to me, defeating cartel-capitalism ala “None Dare Call a Conspiracy,” is all that matters. And at he end of the day Oprah’s brand of diva bliss and manifestation is fake and satanic, the real world is one great big power balance that had crossed the line asking us to turn trick in some degenerate side-show.
“Would you be killed in your sleep, like an ailing pet?”
Trainwreck92
June 15, 2017 @ 9:14 pm
Big Tex, I’m still not sure if you’re doing a bit or not, but I’ll be damned if your comments aren’t some of the most interesting things that get posted on this website.
Big Texas Mike
June 16, 2017 @ 3:56 pm
Not doin’ a bit, Sir. Your biggest treasure is bein’ able to be you, speakin’ truth, and winnin’; what you see out there ain’t winnin’, it’s just one great big charade by people that make a livin’ off process — over and under roles just because everybody knows you bow down to celebrity, their eminence is by fiat.
Evan Rhodey
June 15, 2017 @ 7:32 pm
Why are you so dead set on country being such an old redneck authentic bullshit genre?
Shania made great music. So does Sam Hunt… Move with the times grandpa. Not all of us like George Strait and Merle Haggard’s music. I like some rock and pop in my country. I like the new country sound.
Let’s face it, a young man in a frat house at college who drives a Trans Am and listens to Sam Hunt or Luke Bryan and goes to beach parties in the summer can be just as country as a person on a farm living out in the middle of nowhere who is clinging to the past with his Merle Haggard records and hunts and fishes and loves to eat meat and potatoes. The country stereotype is changing, and fast. So is country music. People were pissed about Waylon not sounding like Hank, or Chet Atkins popifying country in Nashville because those poor old folk in Bakersfield were “so more country”. I don’t identify with that. I identify with the first dude. And I’m entitled to love what I call country and call it country as you all are to listen to your heartbroken woman left dog died beers empty type songs all you want. They bore me.
I don’t like Americana/Traditional Country. I like some loud electric guitars with a light show at a concert and some Marshalls and Les Pauls and PRSs and not Teles through Twins with compressor pedals and slap echo. I like classic rock first and foremost, and I love RnB and some pop. I find that this stuff you call pop or junk is actually right up my alley. And I’m far from the lowest common denominator. I could be your next boss at a job site. I’m not “easy to please and will swallow everything”. I find this new country appeals to a younger crowd, and the older ones who are open to country TRULY evolving into something different, not just regenerating and kicking the same horse again and again. I’m open to cross pollination.
All in all, one (older redneck grandpa’s) man’s trash is another’s treasure. Keep an open mind, don’t personally attack modern country artists, and don’t shame those who listen to this music. Just because it isn’t your thing doesn’t make it bad. You prefer the prior country sound. I prefer the new country sound. I won’t bash yours if you don’t bash mine. I’m not afraid to let a dyed in the wool blogger know how I feel.
We are all in this together. Let’s all stop the bullshit and learn to love each other and tastes in the arts.
-Evan
Trigger
June 15, 2017 @ 8:33 pm
“We are all in this together. Let’s all stop the bullshit and learn to love each other and tastes in the arts.”
“Why are you so dead set on country being such an old redneck authentic bullshit genre? I don’t like Americana/Traditional Country.”
Seems to be a little contradiction there.
I can’t speak for everyone, but there are tons of contemporary country artists that I really enjoy. Country music does need to evolve to survive and stay relevant. But I’m not sure what any of this has to do with the godawful production of this song. I want to hear Shania’s voice. I want to hear the cut of the fiddle and the pluck of the banjo. That’s why she put it in her song. It seems like if there was anything we could agree on, maybe it could be that.
Evan Rhodey
June 15, 2017 @ 10:04 pm
I was worked up, sorry.
Bertox
June 15, 2017 @ 8:50 pm
Why are you so dead set on trying to express your voice here? There are plenty of pop country, bro country, electronica country, rap country, anything-but-country fan worship sites to lap up the kind of praise you’re looking for. Seek and you shall find
Evan Rhodey
June 15, 2017 @ 10:10 pm
Hi Bertox, this is my first time posting. I guess I feel that the hate between the two sides of this topic is wearing on me and I saw a link on Facebook and thought I’d read some and I found out that there is a lot of hate not just for the music but the listeners who like it or don’t fit into the prior “country” mold.
albert
June 15, 2017 @ 10:28 pm
Evan…here , once again , is a rationale that will hopefully clarify things for you .
Is this good music ? you decide that…..
Is this good songwriting ? you decide ….
is this a talented artist ?……you decide
Is this COUNTRY MUSIC ? Not by a l-o-n-g shot …..that’s just a fact .
Yes …this is what radio is CALLING ‘ country music ‘ right now . But in doing so , they are insulting and doing a huge disservice to the ARTISTS who ARE writing , recording and performing actual country music . THIS pop music takes away airtime and promotional outlets from artists who are committed to , passionate about and RESPECT the history and the elements of ACTUAL country music while denying listeners a mainstream opportunity to hear the REAL thing. Simple as that . To a fan of ACTUAL country music , these pop artists are taking advantage of access to the outlets which SHOULD be available to REAL country artists . Yes ….we , as fans of real country music , are insulted , frustrated , angry and serious about making a stand for the REAL thing before it is lost to pop music labels who DON’T respect the history and traditions of the genre . I’m sure you can appreciate those sentiments .
Bertox
June 16, 2017 @ 8:46 am
Yo Evan
I’m only speaking for myself, but I don’t hate people that like the stuff they play on country radio. Hell, my kids like some of it, as do some family and friends. I don’t take any issue with someone liking something different than me. And yes, if everything sounded like Hank Williams, it would get old real fast. My issue is Music Row and country radio taking all the country out of country and still calling it country, saying it’s “evolving.” That’s pissing on our legs and telling us it’s raining. If i was a big metal fan, and one day my favorite metal station announced, “today’s new metal! It’s evolving,” and started playing pure electronica, I would be just as pissed off. And it gets worse every year, look at Sam Hunt. The dude’s music is about as country as Bruno Mars. Yet they play it constantly while Daryle Singletary and Rhonda Vincent’s new record will not get a single spin. Does that make any sense?
Jtrpdx
June 15, 2017 @ 9:24 pm
It’s a damn internet blog and comment section, Evan. Don’t take yourself, or people’s opinions about music, too seriously. There will always be plenty of pre-teens and others who like shallow music to keep the pop “country” industry pumping out a product that you like. No need to worry. One point / piece of advice: any “job site” I have ever been around is full of guys who will laugh you out of town if you roll up in your rig blasting “body like a backroad” or something similar. I wouldn’t recommend trying it.
Evan Rhodey
June 15, 2017 @ 10:09 pm
Jtrpdx- Depends on where you are from… The people I work with share my tastes in music. Newer younger crowd who have open tastes, we aren’t talking small town construction small family business. More urban area and the crew is 20-late 40s. Backroad is a good song, I like it. I feel your comments about being shallow are unfair and untrue. Obviously there are adults that like this stuff, just watch some YouTube of the CMA fest crowd. All ages there, but they are open minded. It’s not Justin Bieber preteen girls. But yes, there are women who like new country and I dig their outfits. 😉 My girl shares my taste in music. We are going to see Luke Bryan next week.
I’d like to be friends with you, but not if you try to insult me, ok?
-Evan
Liz
June 16, 2017 @ 12:42 am
At the risk of starting a comment’s war. I live in New Zealand where as you can imagine there is not a lot of country music being played on any radio, notwithstanding the appearance of Sam Hunt on a Top 40, 18 – 35 demographic radio station that I was forced to listern to last year while travelling in the car with teenage daughter. One of the first alburn I ever brought in the late 1970’s was Waylon Jennings greatest hits (and the River by Bruce Springsteen) Still think Kris Kristofferson is the greatest song writer to ever to live. When I started to listen to country radio via the internet a few years ago, I too was suduced by the likes of Luke Bryan, Lee Brice, Toby Keith, Trace Atkins and Kip Moore. In fact I like a lot of their earlier music. Same with some of Keith Urban’s early music: (who is a New Zealander, not Australian). But one’s taste change and like a fine wine one can be introduced to a new palate. With the assistance of blogs such as this one, ones judgement can be refined, new artists and music can slowly be introduced, changing ones taste’s, opinion and way of thinking. So don’t be too hard on anyone who think’s Sam Hunt or FGL are country or in anyway good music. They just need to be shown the errors of their ways. Sturgill, Jason, Aaron, Chris will all come with time. BTW I loathe Shania’s music.
Big Texas Mike
June 16, 2017 @ 4:11 pm
comes down to this: you ain’t gone turn my honky-tonk and what i’ve seen, what i love to some hard-rock cafe. not all of it can be moderated with words, it’s a Spirit. People kill over fundamentalism, and what we have are a bunch a mark zuckerbergs of the world with their urban emptiness like they’re in an existential battle with the humans that still have the “graspable” significations to make sense out of their existence. the South has that archetypal impoverishment combined with tenderness and Over-Excitability (Positive Disintegration — National Identity) that produces people, real people; this you can’t theorize and moderate on unless it’s in your constitution, in your correspondence, and you experienced it.
Kevin smith
June 16, 2017 @ 4:52 am
Sorry if everybody’s jumping down your throat for having the audacity to like a certain style of music! Yeah, we are a small but passionate bunch that regularly comment here. The blogger, Trigger tends to like a more traditional sound to his country and most who regularly comment here agree. There is a growing number of young musicians who are indeed making country music with heart and soul, great songwriting, steel guitars, telecasters, fiddles, Austin and Bakersfield influences etc. We like folks like Cody Jinks, Whitey Morgan, Wayne Hancock, Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and a bunch of other like minded souls. We also love the classics, folks like Johnny, Waylon, Willie, Merle, Dolly, Tammy, Loretta, Dwight, both George’s etc.
So if this blog has a leaning it’s to the side of what you might consider a traditional sound. That said, many of us are also rock fans and you may find us at the same rock shows you attend. But to us, there is something really special and unique to country music and we get grumpy when we sense it’s drifting too far from it’s roots.
MH
June 16, 2017 @ 7:00 am
“Obviously there are adults that like this stuff, just watch some YouTube of the CMA fest crowd.”
Adults that are just as shallow as the music they listen to.
jtrpdx
June 16, 2017 @ 8:24 am
Evan – all completely understood! People have different views and it is obvious that a lot of people listen to pop music, as they always have. I guess the biggest thing to realize is that there are a lot of music “nerds” (for lack of a better term) out there who take music much more serious than the casual radio listener, or someone who just listens to music for a good time. These types are much more critical…especially of highly commercialized pop music….and these are the people who you will mostly find following a blog like this or commenting here. It isn’t something you should take personally, or really pay attention to, as it is just going to lead to frustration.
Evan Rhodey
June 21, 2017 @ 7:45 pm
Sorry, just getting around to reading the replies since I wrote last.
I undertand where you are coming from jtrpdx. I get it.
Jim Bob Junior, I can tell you are being sarcastic. No need to be rude or snarky about it. What I’m saying is that it’s still country, but for a new era and I’ll be the first to admit it sounds nothing like country of old and I can see how some get upset because of it. But regardless, no need for the sarcastic snarky comments like that.
Jim Bob Junior
June 16, 2017 @ 10:58 am
I’m with ya, Evan. I’m entitled to call a certain type of music the genre that I want to label it as. My favorite blues artist is Mariah Carey, my favorite reggae artist is Merle Haggard, and I love the hard rock of Kenny G. I don’t care what anyone says.
Bill Weiler
June 27, 2017 @ 4:47 am
“There’s only two kinds of music: the blues and zippity doo-dah.” Townes Van Zandt
Learn it, know it, live it.
Nathan38401
June 15, 2017 @ 8:54 pm
Wait. Did I miss something? I always thought she was a radio friendly, couple of hits wonder. Then she went away. She hasn’t had any music since those early ’90s that would make me think that she is an artist doing artist stuff that the radio doesn’t understand…. Why in the fuck is anyone still giving her any headlines? If we are looking for great music from females around that time, I’d strongly recommend Suzy Bogguss, Pam Tillis, Mary Chapen Cartenter was fucking outstanding… But really, why in the hell. are we talking about Shania Twain? Wasn’t good then, can’t expect it to be better now.
Erica
June 15, 2017 @ 9:58 pm
Good lord. I made it two lines in. She sounds like she is going to ask me to press one for English or dos para Espanol.
justin casey
June 15, 2017 @ 10:05 pm
it’s not a bad song but as you and just about everyone else has pointed out her voice sounds like it was heavily processed, that being said i loved shania’s music when i was a kid (i played that come on over album until i just about wore it out) and when the album drops in september i’ll go out and grab a copy
albert
June 15, 2017 @ 10:16 pm
Give me a f***** break ! ANYBODY on the planet can download the software package that can make ANY wannabe sound just like …..well ..just like SHANIA TWAIN .
And how big does your ego have to be to NOT go and get the BEST songs from the BEST PROFESSIONAL songwriters in the world when you CAN and you don’t need the money ???
This belongs in the Sam Hunt bin .
Batool Abbasi
June 16, 2017 @ 1:30 am
the thing is when I heard the song at stagecoach, it was pretty good. Good in a “upbeat, cheesy, harmless shania song” way. Her voice sounded mediocre but the live performance was much much better than whatever in the Tpain is going on here.
Batool Abbasi
June 16, 2017 @ 1:32 am
and if i may add, the woman in me was her best album. It was a good country project that was refreshing and cute. “who’s bed have your boots been under” will always be my jam haha,
MH
June 16, 2017 @ 7:02 am
If anything, after you hear this dreck, it’s evident that she owes her career to Mutt Lange.
bamstrait
June 16, 2017 @ 8:14 am
I have to disagree, this song is so much better than anything at country radio. Shania is a breath of fresh air, saw her on “The Today Show” today and she had me grinning from ear to ear, she brings joy. She takes me back to when the ladies ruled country radio, better times. A review from Billboard: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/country/7833728/shania-twain-lifes-about-to-get-good-essay
Leather Telecaster
June 16, 2017 @ 8:35 am
Auto tune…. the demise of musical emotion.
Leather Telecaster
June 16, 2017 @ 8:36 am
And again, how the F*** do you categorize this as country??? Jeeezus.
Trigger
June 16, 2017 @ 8:50 am
I wouldn’t categorize this as a country album. I would categorize it as an Americana album, or potentially a rock album with country moments. How the F*** can you listen to “Something To Love” and not consider it country?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBB6eBsSedQ
Leather Telecaster
June 16, 2017 @ 8:39 am
nashvilleskylineband.com.. sorry.
BlackHawgDown
June 16, 2017 @ 9:17 am
Just in time to miss the list for worst songs so far this year. It’s time for Cletus T. Judd to make a reappearance to make fun of these corny cheesy songs. Here’s some suggestions starting with this song:
“I’m about to get wood”
“Body like a fat toad”
“I can make a stink” ( I can fix a drink parody)
“Stinkin’ too much” (drinkin to much – Sam hunt)
“Craving food” (craving you – Thomas Rhett)
Melissa
June 16, 2017 @ 10:44 am
I’m an unabashed Shania fan. I dig the bouncy fiddle melodies and cheerful vocals on her older songs. Hey, not all pop country is bad! So coming from someone who *wanted* to like this… the song itself is serviceable. Not “Any Mine of Mine” by any stretch, but not really bad either. It could have been okay. But the production is so gawdawful it makes me wonder what she really sounds like that they had to do that to her. The Chainsmokers make better sounding “music” than this, and it hurt me deeply to type that. I hope her life is going a lot better than this song sounds, cause man is this thing joyless.
Parth Venkat
June 16, 2017 @ 12:47 pm
omg … this could be a reasonable radio single if it weren’t for this production … wth is going on … spot on as usual
Gena R.
June 16, 2017 @ 7:17 pm
Yeah, that’s my biggest problem with it — I don’t mind fun / catchy / feel-good, but to me this sounds way too stiff and processed. :\
Wesley Gray
June 16, 2017 @ 6:32 pm
This is fucking awful. I honestly used to be a Shania fan in the early and mid 90’s (mostly because i was starting puberty and thought she was a hot firecracker (she still is). That aside, this song was DEFINITELY turned into a four-on-the-floor technocratic EDM mess. i had to turn the subwoofer down because the bass was eating up the track. Now i can’t tellif i am listening to ANY “REAL” instruments here. This is just another pop song. Forgetable as hell and i’m going to do my best to start forgetting this trainwreck right now by giving Isbell’s new album a spin. stoked for THAT! spot on review as always, Kyle. ?
albert
June 17, 2017 @ 5:58 pm
Didn’t Garth do this one and call it ” Let’s Lay Down And Dance ” . What the HELL are these folks smoking/drinking/dropping/popping in Twangtown ? I’m cringing just thinking that radio might like this and play the daylights out of it . Musical Armageddon is surely upon us .
Adrian
June 18, 2017 @ 1:26 pm
I don’t think this song will get that much airplay. How many big hits on country radio in the last few years have been songs by 51 year old women who had not released an album in 15 years? Most of the singles from “Up!” did not reach the top 10 on the country charts. And that was 15 years ago when she was a smoking hot sex symbol in her 30s and one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. She’s just not that relevant any more. The world has long since moved on.
albert
June 18, 2017 @ 3:54 pm
good point adrien….and ,hopefully , cause for celebration . although Canada , by law , must have 30% Canadian content in their airplay so she stands a better chance of getting played here , unfortunately ….
Beverly Kurchaba
June 18, 2017 @ 11:49 am
Hate it! Big Disappointment! Sounds robotic, no emotion. Wayyyyy too much digital music, no country tone what-so-ever. I doubt Shania will even like it herself. Too late now. I miss her authentic tone and sound, her original sounding music. These producers will ultimately destroy her. Whoever agreed to have these producer(s) handle her music needs to be fired and dropped immediately.
Adrian
June 18, 2017 @ 1:09 pm
This is not the first song where Shania has sounded robotic, with no soul. Many of the songs on “Up!” were over produced, and that was released 15 years ago. I know she had some early tracks such as “No One Needs to Know” and “The Woman in Me” where the production was much more stripped down, probably because she had to pay her dues in Nashville in her first two albums with Mercury. I don’t think country music is where her heart is or what she identifies with. The overproduction in her new music reinforces my belief that she is and has always been more of a mercenary than an artist.
Willie Potter
June 18, 2017 @ 5:24 pm
Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, George Strait ,Toby Keith ,Sara Evans, Trace Adkins, Travis Tritt ,
Ronnie Dunn, Leann Rimes,Jamey Johnson……
Time’s up.
Radio is not behind you anymore.
Sad.
Willie Potter
June 18, 2017 @ 5:27 pm
Shania Is now part of that esteemed club of older artists who are now getting the high hard one.
Caitlin
June 18, 2017 @ 9:10 pm
I was just listening to the song, was wondering why her voice sounded so odd and different from the voice that I was familiar with, thought I was going crazy and so I googled it and found your article. This makes no sense. She doesn’t even sound like herself. It’s terrible, truly terrible. I am a fan of Shania. I loved her songs in the 90s when I was growing up. This just makes me sad.
Doug
June 19, 2017 @ 2:49 am
Once a processed, synthetic product, always a processed, synthetic product.
KathyP
June 19, 2017 @ 7:45 am
Elevator music at best. Totally forgettable. Then again, I was never a fan of Shania.
Dan
June 19, 2017 @ 11:14 am
Shania has had some really great songs but after her divorce and getting dysphonia the Shania today is singing jingles.
Brandon F
June 20, 2017 @ 9:21 am
I made it 20 seconds before I had to turn it off. What the hell was that? I made it further through Body Like a Backroad and Fix a Drink. So far this is the worst country song of 2017.
matthew rutledge
June 20, 2017 @ 12:25 pm
Holy hell, I need a drink
CountryKnight
June 21, 2017 @ 10:30 pm
She did more to wreck country music than Garth Brooks supposedly ever did.
Garth has songs that will live forever in the country music canon.
Shania was more bubblegum than the underside of a schoolhouse desk.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
June 24, 2017 @ 5:03 pm
at least Garth had a great voice and some great songs. That ol wind, the change, it’s midnight cinderella, every now and then, fit for a king, I mean why does everyone hate garth he’s awesome
CountryKnight
June 24, 2017 @ 7:37 pm
Because Waylon hated him and some people treat every word of Waylon’s like it is gospel truth.
Eric
July 12, 2017 @ 3:20 pm
I’ve always been very much a fan of Shania, but I have to admit that this song sucked. Not only melodically, but altogether.
Brooke Witham
August 3, 2017 @ 8:55 am
I’d like to hear just he snd her accoustic guitar, for a performance.
I think she sells herself short. And why? She has enough money I would think ??
Brooke Witham
August 3, 2017 @ 12:32 pm
*her and her accoustic guitar
Josette
August 19, 2017 @ 4:22 pm
I hate everything about this song…. so disappointed. On her website there is another song “Poor Me”. The lyrics are so bad I was embarrassed for her. Shania your songs were great back in the day but if this is the best you got then you lost a fan. Maybe Mutt put the magic in the tracks.
heywood jahblowme
September 3, 2017 @ 3:46 pm
I used to love Shania back in the 90’s but this stuff (there are 3 new songs out now) is TERRIBLE. It’s exactly as the reviewer said, bad production in the typical post 2000’s era, all digital, no feeling, no warmth, the producer clearly hasn’t worked in the country OR rock genres before. What’s even more scary is this song was chosen as the lead off single, so it’s presumbably considered the best one on the album? The other two i’ve heard are far worse than this one. I can’t imagine what horrors the rest of the album will hold. Albums don’t really sell nowdays anyway, making it all a waste of time, but this one is gonna get panned big time!
Betty
October 3, 2017 @ 2:53 pm
The problem that I see in her new album is that she is still madly in love with Mutt Lang. She is lowering herself by singing to him through her music. I feel really bad for her.
Bigbadnurse
July 14, 2021 @ 12:20 am
Maybe shania really was a studio creation of mutt Lange. What a difference without him
Bigbadnurse
October 18, 2021 @ 10:59 pm
EDM is just electronic noise over a melody. Maybe it’s fun to party to but there’s nothing creative about it. The Beatles did it better when they sand walrus over an ambulance siren