Have you heard Shania Twain’s song “Waking Up Dreaming” released four months ago? This genre-blending superstar is literally recording moments with every hit she drops. “Waking Up Dreaming” is not a song you listen to once, or even twice, or thrice… It’s one of those hits you listen to on replay, whilst rocking out “like superstars.”
As the lead single off of her album Queen of Me, the country-pop legend delivered a song that’s just right for all ages to sing and dance along to. With lyrics like, “So let’s start waking up dreamin’ / And dress up crazy like superstars / There ain’t no shakin’ this feelin’ / Tonight we’re makin’ our way to Mars,” you really get a sense that we’re indeed stepping into Shania Twain’s renaissance era. And fans are loving it.
Followed up by “Last Day Of Summer” and “Giddy Up,” we still get the feeling that Twain is preparing us to welcome her new sound and her new outlook on life.
Speaking on what she wants people to experience from “Queen of Me”, the artist said: “I want people to feel good when they hear the new album. I want to set a celebratory tone and ‘Giddy Up!’ is a way to call to the audience and say ‘let’s get ready for some fun!'”
Finally, when February 3 came round, fans were breathless with anticipation, but, if you were expecting a heartbreak record from the Queen of Country Pop, go home! Filled with bops after bops, you nod, shake, dance and shimmy through the entire album. It’s hard to keep still when you’re listening to the tracks on the album.
However, it’s completely natural to assume that her first album in five years will address the heartache and pain of the past. She’s been through a lot within that time: a divorce and an infection that almost robbed her of her golden voice and could still well do. A surgery helped her preserve it, but it now means we get to hear Twain sing in a different timbre than we’re used to.
But, instead of dwelling on these sad and frustrating times, she decided to concentrate on the joys that came after. For example, she’s found her voice again and she’s married to someone who makes her sing these words: “The world goes away / Every time that you lay / In my arms and you’re saying my name.” Lifted off from the song “Number One,” it’s certainly a far cry from the more natural and instantly lovable hit “You’re Still the One” or the deeply touching lyrics of “Forever and For Always” that still manages to make people smile whenever and wherever they hear it.
Okay, going past the fact that the entire record shares a positive message and wants us all to get up and dance like it’s the “last day of summer,” it’s really underwhelming in a way that makes us yearn for the old Twain. Not to say that the entire record is devoid of hits as “Pretty Liar,” “Queen of Me,” and “Waking Up Dreaming” really delivered and are set to become global favorites. But when it comes to the entire album as a whole, it’s not the return we were expecting from our favorite country pop singer.