The Chicks, Pretenders, Ellie Goulding: Latest album reviews
They were victims of cancel culture before it was a thing, now The Chicks are back – and might not be what you’re expecting. PLUS Pretenders and Ellie Goulding
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This week’s album reviews from The Courier-Mail (ratings out of five stars):
COUNTRY
The Chicks, Gaslighter
(Sony) ****
“Half of you love me, half already hate me.” The artists until recently known as Dixie Chicks were victims of cancel culture before it even had a name. Fourteen years later they’re back with their fifth studio effort. But despite this backdrop and the loaded title, the album is more personal than political, informed by Natalie Maines’s divorce from actor Adrian Pasdar. The opening title track sets the stage with the Chicks’ harmonies in full flight, while Maines’s hindsight is 20/20 on tracks such as Sleep at Night, My Best Friend’s Wedding and Tights on My Boat. “It’s way too long since somebody’s body kept me up all night,” she sings on infectious highlight Texas Man, which could be straight off a Taylor Swift album. There are the conflicting emotions of bleak ballad Everybody Loves You, and the funereal fiddle of the overtly political March March.
ROCK
Pretenders, Hate For Sale
(BMG) ***1/2
With its false start and post-punk garage-band sensibility, the opening title track of Pretenders’ first album in four years sounds like they’re getting back to their roots, much like U2 with their ode to Joey Ramone. The impression continues with the Blondie-like instrumental break and latter-day-Doors bassline of Turf Accountant Daddy. But they branch out further with the dreamy dub reggae of Lightning Man, while the breezy guitar of Maybe Love is in New York is reminiscent of Learning to Fly-era Tom Petty. Hynde’s unmistakeable voice is undimmed by the decades, and she draws on her nearly 70 years of experience for You Can’t Hurt a Fool. The stop-start power pop of I Did Not Know When to Stop is further ignited by harmonica, then there’s the substance-affected stride of Junkie Walk.
R&B
Ellie Goulding, Brightest Blue
(Universal) ***
Like The Chicks, UK singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding has been out of it a while and dealing with a relationship breakdown. Now she’s back and newly empowered: “I’m not a material girl/Everything in your world just feels like plastic,” she sings on the bass-heavy Power. She lays out her manifesto on aptly titled opener Start, while interlude Cyan is an affirmation of positive thinking, leading into the celebratory Love I’m Given. The self-discovery continues on Ode to Myself and Woman, and she learns to love herself on New Heights. But uncertainty remains: “I’m still in love with the idea of loving you,” she sings on Flux. And It’s not all introspective balladry, with pulsing numbers like Tides and the title track reinforcing Goulding’s R&B credentials. It’s an album in two parts, the second a collaborative affair with guest turns from the likes of Lauv, Diplo and Juice WRLD.
Originally published as The Chicks, Pretenders, Ellie Goulding: Latest album reviews
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