The Chicks
"Gaslighter"
(Sony (ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK))
As "Gaslighter" neared completion, the first album in 14 years by Natalie Maines, Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Strayer looked like it was going to be a collection of protest music. The album's name echoes a term for psychological manipulation that has often been leveled at President Donald Trump.
Coming from a band ostracized by the country establishment for Maines' 2003 comments in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq _ who then released a 2006 single called "Not Ready To Make Nice" _ it seemed the group, now performing as the Chicks, was again spoiling for a fight.
The single "March March" was issued in June with a video expressing solidarity with Black Lives Matter as the band changed its name to distance themselves from the racist connotations of the word "Dixie."
Along with "March March," the album contains a fist-raised feminist anthem, "For Her." But "Gaslighter," as it turns out, is not a protest album. It's a divorce album.
The spirit that animates the collection is the dissolution of Maines' marriage to actor Adrian Pasdar, who last year attempted to legally block her from releasing songs with lyrics that pertain to their breakup.
He failed, and Maines lays into him from the get-go. "Gaslighter _ you liar!" she sings on the title track, one of two songs on which she expresses outrage at something that happened aboard a boat (which Texas Monthly has surmised is the sailboat The Nautalee that Pasdar gave Maines as a gift). The other song, "Tights on My Boat" begins: "I hope you die peacefully in your sleep/ Just kidding, I hope it hurts like you hurt me."
"Gaslighter" pairs the Chicks with Jack Antonoff, who's also worked with Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Lorde and St. Vincent. Songs like "Texas Man" and "Hope It's Something Good" do a fine job of melding Maines' powerhouse vocals with Strayer and Maguire's dobro, fiddle and harmony singing. It's an appealing pop-country hybrid that's landed the Chicks back on top of the country charts, where they belong. _ Dan DeLuca
