Dixie Chicks – Gaslighter

For those unaware, the artist formerly known as the Dixie Chicks (now branded simply as The Chicks in light of the current cultural climate surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and other forces at large) are an American country pop trio consisting of singer Natalie Maines and multi-instrumentalist sisters Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Strayer. After a 14 year hiatus the band has returned with their first album of new material since Taking The Long Way from 2006. Just their eighth album in 30 years, Gaslighter features 12 tracks over 47 minutes, most of which deal with divorce, separation, break up, heartache, infidelity, sexual longing and revenge. A deeply personal album, the trio’s latest puts much of its lyrical focus on lead singer Natalie Maine’s most recent divorce. Including the album’s title track, well over half of the album’s songs, from “Sleep At Night”, “Texas Man”, “Everybody Loves You”, “Tights On My Boat”, “Hope It’s Something Good”, “Set Me Free” and “Young Man” all deal in one way or another, directly or indirectly, with marital break up.

“You’re only as sick as your secrets so I’m telling everything” Maines boldly states in “Sleep At Night” which pretty much sums up the lyrical content of the entire album. The lyrics are deeply honest, straightforward and to the point. While not exactly John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band the material is most certainly plain and candid. Musically the album is more pop than country with only the occasional pluck of a fiddle, mandolin and banjo here and there to remind the listener that they are indeed experiencing music that is intended to be branded as country in the most commercial sense of the word.  Despite the explicit nature of the bulk of Gaslighter, overall the album comes across as mostly bland and safe. Anyone experiencing the kind of break up Gaslighter obsesses over will either gleefully cheer on their fellow scorned or not want to be so repeatedly reminded of something far too close to home. Either way its hit or miss, for this listener its mostly miss.

6/10