The Chicks (formerly The Dixie Chicks) have officially released their first studio album since 2006 with all of the hype and excitement that comes with it.
Gaslighter is 12 songs and 47 minutes long. It's got ups and downs. It's vibrant and loud and strong. And it's slowed down and sad and emotional. It's the return I've been waiting for and it's going to make some people happy and it's going to piss some people off. They knew this going into it. We all did.
In these important, volatile, upside-down times, this is a record I'm glad we got. I'm glad it's here. But instead of writing a review and trying to be eloquent in my thoughts after two or three listens - I did something different. I opened a doc, hit play on Gaslighter for the first time and started writing down my thoughts as I listened to the album song by song. And so that's what you're going to see, along with some music videos, in the post below.
So, without any further ado, let's go!
★ Holy shit, I'm excited. I haven't even hit play yet.
★ Yes, okay. Gaslighter! Burn it all down. Go for the throat. I've been in since the first time I heard the song, I'm not changing now.
★ I still need to know what happened on that boat!
★ "Repeating all the mistakes of your father" is one of the most damning shots I think I've ever heard in a song.
★ There's some serious serious personal stuff here in Sleep At Night. Dang.
★ I know that The Chicks have taken a lot of abuse from folks over the last decade+, but I hope they're ready for shitty men to come at them now for putting this stuff out there.
★ ps. Don't do that.
★ Someone get this woman a Texas man!
★ "Everybody wants the new model, but I'm a little bit more travelled" is a great line.
★ Texas Man makes me want to pause the album to go listen to Cowboy Take Me Away. (I should confess that I could listen to Cowboy Take Me Away twice a day every day for the rest of my life anyway)
★ Everybody Loves You is out here trying to make me cry.
★ "and I'm trying to hate you 'cause I want to." & "and I'm trying to forgive you, I don't want to." are as real as any breakup lyrics in country music have ever been.
★ Giving you all these ones from Marissa R. Moss because they're great...
"I'm not a martyr, I'm just someone who cares."
would be such a shame to see this line only as the personal confessions of one band - I think of every artist standing up right now and not shutting up and singing.- Marissa R. Moss (@MarissaRMoss) July 17, 2020
★ "So dig a little bit deeper and be a whole lot kinder..." - write that on a post-it note and keep it somewhere you can see it every day.
★ Also, let's get this out of the way. This is a country album. And there are going to be people that say it isn't country or it isn't country enough or whatever. Too bad for them. Fans of the band and fans of the songs are going to get in on Gaslighter. And hell, country radio hasn't done this band any favours in almost 20 years anyway.
★ March March might not make me want to run through a wall, but it sure makes me want to get up and do something good for good.
★ Hit play and watch the March March video now if you haven't seen it already. And even if you have. Watch it again now.
★ "Half of you love me, half already hate me" is an incredibly self-aware lyric from women who definitely feel it to be true.
★ "Watchin' our youth have to solve our problems" - Yup. Damn. That's it right there. Gen z, you're up and I hope you get the support you need from us. I'm sorry.
★ Seeing My Best Friend's Wedding on the tracklist made me think of Julia Roberts and that made me think of Runaway Bride and that made me think of Ready To Run and You Can't Hurry Love.
★ This is a story song. A country song. A sad song. A story with growth and hurt and hope. Don't let this one go underrated on the album.
★ Tights On My Boat? Is this going to be the story of what happened on the boat from Gaslighter?!
★ She really left her tights on the boat?! WTF? Come on people. Dang.
★ There are lessons to learn from this album. 1) Don't be a shitty husband/partner. 2) Know that if you choose to be with a songwriter, your good and bad are likely to end up on a record. 3) If it's really bad, there's no running from it.
★ "breathe, it'll be okay" is a great little take away from Julianna Calm Down.
★ Also, "just put on put on put on your best shoes and strut the fuck around like you've got nothing to lose" is also great advice.
★ These women aren't afraid to drop an f-bomb in a country song and that should be applauded if for no other reason than it shows that they are more outlaw country than most of the self-described outlaws that love to police the genre.
★ 30 seconds into Young Man and I feel like I'll probably get choked up soon.
★ I come from a split family and I know that it was hard on my mom and I can't imagine it really from her perspective. But the line "take the best parts of him, as your own life begins, leave the bad news behind you" feels both deeply personal when Natalie Maines sings it, and also pretty universal to any mom who's been in her shoes.
★ "try to understand I've done my best, the best I know how to" drips with enough emotion to make me want to ball.
★ Hope It's Something Good feels like defeat. Like that feeling when you let yourself just sit in the dark and hurt and wonder what the hell happened and know you lost.
★ It's a feeling that reminds me of a friend that was really in a bad place a long time ago and was known to sit in the dark and listen to The Chicks' Top Of The World.
★ If you want a reminder that sometimes art comes from sad places, real-life hurt and hard times and sorrow and pain - this is it.
★ Only one song left? Okay. Let's do it. Set Me Free. Let's go!
★ That thing I just said about Hope It's Something Good and the feelings - I've got them all again on Set Me Free in minute 1.
★ This is a sign the papers and make it official and let's just be over and done song. It's not the part that we hear a lot about. We get the breakup and the reason why and the heartbreak song. But this one matters too.
★ That 3:18 went quickly.
★ I don't know what I honestly and completely hoped for from this album after 14 years of waiting. But I know I'm ready to hit play and start another listen to it. Front to back. Top to bottom. Gaslighter is a winner.
There we go, 39 thoughts from my first listen to Gaslighter from track 1 to track 12 on release day.
Leave a comment telling us if there are thoughts you agree with or disagree with or if you've got completely different thoughts to share. We're all ears.
Here's the tracklist and stream. Hit play.
The Chicks, Gaslighter Tracklist
