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Sound & Vision UP! Review
A HUGE Thanks to Ford for sending in this review of UP!
"Sound & Vision" Magazine February/March 2003
P. 121
SHANIA TWAIN Up!
Mercury
Music 4 Stars CDs 4 Stars
They may call her the Queen of Country Pop, but now Shania Twain is aiming for global conquest. Up! is a radical and even unprecedented packaging of new material. Each of its 19 perky, pulsing tunes appears in separate country and pop versions, making for a 38-track, double-disc album. The country set favors fiddle, pedal steel, and twangy guitar, whereas the pop set emphazises synths, electronic beats, and a big rock guitar. (Overseas, a disc with a world-music slant replaces the country versions.) The arranger and producer behind this extravaganza is Twain’s husband, Robert John “Mutt” Lange. But the singer’s zesty vocals, clever turns of phrase, and cool, sassy personality remain the front-and-center attraction. And every song was co-written by Twain and Lange. They make quite a pair.
In the sometimes dour world of rock criticism, it would be easy and politically correct to dismiss Up! as nothing more than a soundtrack to aerobics classes and singles bars (not to mention bastardized country-pop radio). And to a certain extent, those are some of the album’s intended targets. But there’s a bouncy, infectious, even campy sense of fun here. The musical and lyrical subtext – “We’re all in this together, so let’s have a good time” – serves as an apolitical antidote to the woes of the new millenium. Moreover, Twain may well be a closet revolutionary. Her attack on capitalism run amuck, “Ka-Ching!,” is both more incisive and wither (note the homage to Pink Floyd’s “Money” in the beginning) than anything by would-be anarchists like Chumbawamba or Rage Against the Machine.
At the same time, with an eye on the charts (all of the charts), Twain doesn’t miss a trick. “C’est La Vie” has the Europop fizz of vintage ABBA, “Juanita” is directed at the burgeoning Latin market (if in an obvious way), and “Forever and For Always” tugs at the heartstrings with Carpenters-like harmonies. Elsewhere, “In My Car (I’ll Be the Driver)” is a romping novelty, “Nah!” is a great kissoff, and “I’m Gonna Getcha Good!” is a spitfire number about lining up a man in her sights.
As you may have noticed, many song titles end with an exclamation point, underscoring the married auteurs’ high spirits. You’ve got to like the optimism of an album that breezes past our current strife to a more harmonious world – a place where the party’s the thing!
Parke Puterbaugh
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Getting ready for it....just wait and see... 
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