Claudia
01-03-2003, 11:09am
Shania wants you: And she'll even go Bollywood, if that's what it takes
by Larry Katz
Friday, January 3, 2003
Resistance is futile. Shania Twain wants you to listen to her new CD ``Up!'' She insists.
``I'm gonna getcha, it's a matter of fact,'' Twain declares on the single ``I'm Gonna Getcha Good!'' It's ostensibly a love song, but it might just as well be a statement of the 37-year old singer's business goals: ``I'm gonna getcha, don't you worry 'bout that/You can bet your bottom dollar, in time you're gonna be mine.''
Your bottom dollar, indeed. Twain and her husband, producer and co-songwriter Robert John ``Mutt'' Lange, 53, are aiming to make her the biggest-selling pop star in history.
It could happen. Shania's third album, ``Come On Over,'' has sold more than 34 million copies worldwide and reached platinum sales status in 32 countries. It sold 19 million copies in the United States, where it is the sixth-best selling album of all time.
Her fifth album, ``Up!,'' has topped Billboard's album chart since its release in November. It sold 874,000 copies its first week, the best debut ever by a female artist.
Twain and Lange's strategy includes giving consumers more than they expect for their money. Clocking in at 73 minutes, ``Up!'' comes overstuffed with 19 hook-laden songs. Nearly every one is as perky as the smiley face on the cover and nine song titles ending in exclamation points would indicate.
That's not all. For the price of a single disc, ``Up!'' gives you a second.
In the United States, you get a red ``pop'' disc with all 19 songs, plus a green ``country'' disc with the same 19 songs produced Nashville-style.
In Europe and the rest of the apparently indifferent-to-country world, you get the red disc and a blue ``Asian'' disc featuring everything done in the style of Indian ``Bollywood'' film music.
What Twain and Lange want is clear: world domination. And they're happy to give away bonus CDs to achieve it. The only wonder is that they didn't go a step or two farther. A Latin ``Up!'' would be a natural for South America. Afro-pop and Middle Eastern versions might work, too.
As it is, the three versions of ``Up!'' deliver an ear-opening lesson in contemporary production possibilities. (You can download country and Asian versions of two songs - ``Nah!'' and ``When You Kiss Me'' - from www.shaniatwain.com for free and hear the differences for yourself. Obtaining a copy of the European ``Up!'' with the complete Asian CD requires a credit card and a little more effort. I ordered mine from a British Internet CD dealer, www.cd-wow.com).
The songs on the pop disc get their sparkle and sheen from meticulously manicured electric guitars and keyboards, specialties of Lange, who spent the '80s working with the likes of the Cars, Def Leppard, AC/DC and Foreigner.
For a country makeover, the guitars slip to the back of the mix and give way to steel guitar, fiddle and banjo, signifiers that the Canadian-born Twain hasn't forgotten the country fans who first made her a success.
Recorded in Mumbai, India, the Asian version offers considerably more fun. The guitars disappear, replaced by sitar, flute, Indian percussion and lots of swooping, darting strings. It's wacky, but it works.
But neither the Asian nor the country version works as well as ``Up!'' in its considerably punchier pop incarnation. ``Waiter! Bring Me Water'' - which laughably casts the gorgeous Twain as a woman angered by her boyfriend's wandering eye - comes with a built-in Asian flavor, but sounds more dynamic riding the pop CD's power chords than bolstered with Bollywood strings. Even ``I Ain't Goin' Down,'' a single mother's tale of fortitude and the album's most country-like song, sounds better as pop than country.
In the end, the creation of country and Asian versions of ``Up!'' seems less a marketing strategy than a novel attempt to amuse. Whether they live in New York, New Mexico or New Delhi, I suspect fans will eventually listen to the pop ``Up!'' more than the country and Asian versions because it is a more dynamic and infectious display of the bright and happy, border-crossing pop sound that is Twain's real strength.
Twain sells massive numbers of CDs around the world not because of any gimmickry, but because she offers something that has become a rare commodity in today's overly segmented music scene. She's not a hip-hop, heavy metal, easy listening, hard rock, soft rock, country, alterna-country, adult/contemporary or what-have-you artist. She's a throwback. She recalls a time when there was a place for cheery, tuneful pop acts at the top of the charts. It's no accident that one of the songs on ``Up!,'' ``C'est la Vie,'' bears an unmistakable resemblance to the Swedish foursome ABBA's ``Dancing Queen.''
``Up!'' gives you song after well-sung, well-crafted song, each with a catchy chorus and undemanding lyrical concern. Twain's for love and against greed. Who can disagree?
Twain wants everyone to like her. ``Up!'' shows she's going to do whatever it takes to make that happen.
http://www2.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/katz01032003.htm
by Larry Katz
Friday, January 3, 2003
Resistance is futile. Shania Twain wants you to listen to her new CD ``Up!'' She insists.
``I'm gonna getcha, it's a matter of fact,'' Twain declares on the single ``I'm Gonna Getcha Good!'' It's ostensibly a love song, but it might just as well be a statement of the 37-year old singer's business goals: ``I'm gonna getcha, don't you worry 'bout that/You can bet your bottom dollar, in time you're gonna be mine.''
Your bottom dollar, indeed. Twain and her husband, producer and co-songwriter Robert John ``Mutt'' Lange, 53, are aiming to make her the biggest-selling pop star in history.
It could happen. Shania's third album, ``Come On Over,'' has sold more than 34 million copies worldwide and reached platinum sales status in 32 countries. It sold 19 million copies in the United States, where it is the sixth-best selling album of all time.
Her fifth album, ``Up!,'' has topped Billboard's album chart since its release in November. It sold 874,000 copies its first week, the best debut ever by a female artist.
Twain and Lange's strategy includes giving consumers more than they expect for their money. Clocking in at 73 minutes, ``Up!'' comes overstuffed with 19 hook-laden songs. Nearly every one is as perky as the smiley face on the cover and nine song titles ending in exclamation points would indicate.
That's not all. For the price of a single disc, ``Up!'' gives you a second.
In the United States, you get a red ``pop'' disc with all 19 songs, plus a green ``country'' disc with the same 19 songs produced Nashville-style.
In Europe and the rest of the apparently indifferent-to-country world, you get the red disc and a blue ``Asian'' disc featuring everything done in the style of Indian ``Bollywood'' film music.
What Twain and Lange want is clear: world domination. And they're happy to give away bonus CDs to achieve it. The only wonder is that they didn't go a step or two farther. A Latin ``Up!'' would be a natural for South America. Afro-pop and Middle Eastern versions might work, too.
As it is, the three versions of ``Up!'' deliver an ear-opening lesson in contemporary production possibilities. (You can download country and Asian versions of two songs - ``Nah!'' and ``When You Kiss Me'' - from www.shaniatwain.com for free and hear the differences for yourself. Obtaining a copy of the European ``Up!'' with the complete Asian CD requires a credit card and a little more effort. I ordered mine from a British Internet CD dealer, www.cd-wow.com).
The songs on the pop disc get their sparkle and sheen from meticulously manicured electric guitars and keyboards, specialties of Lange, who spent the '80s working with the likes of the Cars, Def Leppard, AC/DC and Foreigner.
For a country makeover, the guitars slip to the back of the mix and give way to steel guitar, fiddle and banjo, signifiers that the Canadian-born Twain hasn't forgotten the country fans who first made her a success.
Recorded in Mumbai, India, the Asian version offers considerably more fun. The guitars disappear, replaced by sitar, flute, Indian percussion and lots of swooping, darting strings. It's wacky, but it works.
But neither the Asian nor the country version works as well as ``Up!'' in its considerably punchier pop incarnation. ``Waiter! Bring Me Water'' - which laughably casts the gorgeous Twain as a woman angered by her boyfriend's wandering eye - comes with a built-in Asian flavor, but sounds more dynamic riding the pop CD's power chords than bolstered with Bollywood strings. Even ``I Ain't Goin' Down,'' a single mother's tale of fortitude and the album's most country-like song, sounds better as pop than country.
In the end, the creation of country and Asian versions of ``Up!'' seems less a marketing strategy than a novel attempt to amuse. Whether they live in New York, New Mexico or New Delhi, I suspect fans will eventually listen to the pop ``Up!'' more than the country and Asian versions because it is a more dynamic and infectious display of the bright and happy, border-crossing pop sound that is Twain's real strength.
Twain sells massive numbers of CDs around the world not because of any gimmickry, but because she offers something that has become a rare commodity in today's overly segmented music scene. She's not a hip-hop, heavy metal, easy listening, hard rock, soft rock, country, alterna-country, adult/contemporary or what-have-you artist. She's a throwback. She recalls a time when there was a place for cheery, tuneful pop acts at the top of the charts. It's no accident that one of the songs on ``Up!,'' ``C'est la Vie,'' bears an unmistakable resemblance to the Swedish foursome ABBA's ``Dancing Queen.''
``Up!'' gives you song after well-sung, well-crafted song, each with a catchy chorus and undemanding lyrical concern. Twain's for love and against greed. Who can disagree?
Twain wants everyone to like her. ``Up!'' shows she's going to do whatever it takes to make that happen.
http://www2.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/katz01032003.htm