photo by John Derek; photo courtesy of UMe
Album Review of Shania Twain: The Woman in Me (UMe)
In February, Shania Twain‘s record label celebrated the 30th anniversary of Shania’s breakout album, The Woman in Me. It wasn’t Shania’s first album. Her self-titled debut peaked at 67 on the Billboard country chart, failed to break into the Billboard 200, and resulted in two singles that didn’t even make the top 50 on the country singles charts. No, The Woman in Me was Shania’s second release, and it’s the one that launched her to the stratosphere. It reached number one on the country charts – peaked at 5 on the Billboard 200 – and notched three number one singles on the country chart, eight top 50 country singles, and two top forty hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It was the album that put Shania on the map, to be followed by a number two album and a number one, as Shania became a crossover country-pop superstar.
cover photo by John Derek; image courtesy of UMe
The two crossover hits – “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” and “Any Man of Mine” – remain well-known classics. I’d posit “Any Man…” was the song that gave Shania the sort of confident, fun, ballbusting image that she built upon on the following album – in particular, I’m thinking of the attitude she brought to “That Don’t Impress Me Much.”
Of course, songs like “You Win My Love” and “If It Don’t Take Two” – both fun, mid-tempo country-rockers – balanced that with sassy but heartfelt appeals to true love. “If It Don’t Take Two,” by the way, was one of just four songs on the 12-song album that wasn’t released as a single, but over the course of multiple re-listenings of this album, it has become a personal favorite. And there’s a classic ballad on the record, too, that showcases Shania’s versatility. “The Woman in Me (Needs the Man in You)” was a top 20 country hit, which is a pretty big deal but pales a little on an album that spawned four country number ones. Still, it’s a heartfelt number that I’m sure graced many wedding playlists, at least at the time.
It’s odd that I never reviewed this album before, but at the same time, not so odd. When it was released, I was publishing Geoff Wilbur’s Renegade Newsletter, and though I was receiving most of the top country albums (Nashville was getting almost all of its biggest releases into my hands for inclusion in my publication), I had a bunch of great writers, so I often sent the hottest music their way for review. In particular, I had a particularly strong country music reviewing staff on that publication, so even though I reviewed some great country albums myself, I let my staff handle most of them. Come On Over, the next release, is part of my CD collection, so apparently I reviewed that one myself. (One day, maybe I’ll sift through my archives to see if The Woman in Me was reviewed in my publication 30 years ago.) But I digress…
photo by John Derek; photo courtesy of UMe
As much fun as many of the songs on The Woman in Me are, it was an album whose song list was filled with very stereotypically on-brand country music heartbreak. The album kicks off with another personal favorite, the balladic “Home Ain’t Where His Heart Is (Anymore).” Heartstring-tugging songs like “Is There Life After Love?” and “Raining On Our Love” expressed similar, if slightly different sentiments; oddly, neither of those two songs were released as singles, but they’re fantastically powerful, both of them. And “Raining On Our Love,” heavy as it is, is followed by “Leaving is the Only Way Out,” an Opry-esque crooner that’ll bring you down to an even lower emotional depth, if possible.
Other songs range from even-more-sassy, as in “(If You’re Not In It For Love) I’m Outta Here,” and simply playful, like the fun “No One Needs to Know,” to the album-closer, “God Bless the Child,” a “hallelujah”-filled song that sonically recalls Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel.” Though Shania’s song is older, so maybe that recollection should be stated the other way around.
Anyway, for those who remember first hearing all of these songs 30 years ago, this is a great trip down memory lane. For those of us who heard the singles but didn’t know the album, there are some soon-to-be-favorites on here that never previously entered our consciousness. And some of the rest of you? Well, maybe you’re relatively new to Shania (yes, some people were born after the nineties). Maybe you’re familiar with her 2023 release Queen of Me (which charted in Canada with “Waking Up Dreaming” and “Giddy Up!”) or her kickass 2023 single with Anne-Marie, “Unhealthy.” Well, then this is a great way to start your journey.
photo by John Derek; photo courtesy of UMe
Final Word
This goes out to the longtime, old-school Shania Twain fans: If you haven’t heard Queen of Me, give it a listen. And if I can only convince you to check out one song from that 2023 release, skip the singles. Instead, check out “Pretty Liar.” (But not at work; it’s a little NSFW.) I mean, yeah, you can check out the singles, too, and the rest of the album, but I’ve just told you what my favorite song is.
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