Gaslighter by Stephanie Sarkis

Tiene 3 canciones buenas y el resto….
Además es monotema

You only hear an album for the first time once. After fourteen years waiting, tonight I gave Gaslighter my undivided attention. The vinyl just arrived from Amazon today and I waited until I could listen to it in my time. Opening the shipping box I was surprised to see it had a #DixieChicks cover, having fully expected #TheChicks first album.
Not knowing what to expect, I put the needle to the record and listened with open ears and an open mind. Gaslighter isn’t a clean follow up to the band’s brilliant Rick Rubin produced ‘Taking The Long Way’ album from 2006. In the space of these two Chicks offerings, Natalie Maines released the solid album ‘Mother’ and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Robison released the very charming ‘Court Yard Hounds’. Neither of these albums resonated with me as much as the 2006 team effort album (which still is a favorite of mine).
Upon first listen, Gaslighter feels like a concept album. It tells the story of a mother forced to pick up the pieces of her family’s life after discovering the infidelities of her struggling actor husband. It reads autobiographical, and sound sincere.
The album emotionally wears its heart on its sleeve, and the lyrical confessions are perfectly balanced by the musical arrangements surrounding them. Produced by Jack Antonoff and The Chicks, sonically, the album is well balanced with richly layered atmosphere.
My only negative thought was that I couldn’t play it louder while the girls sleep upstairs. I’d find my headphones, but I don’t want to waste any time listening to this album for a second time. I recommend Gaslighter to anyone that appreciates the stuff I like or is curious to understand what I dig.

As someone that owns all of the albums the Dixie Chicks have put out, it was a safe bet that I’d pick this one up as well. Upon first listening to it, I was a bit disappointed that musically or sonically a great deal of the cuts were on the slower end. After many listens though, many of the tracks were growing on me, but predominately I prefer their faster tracks on this, which there are only a few.

This album was produced by “Bleachers” alternative rock frontman, Jack Antonoff, and Bleachers is one of my favorite rock bands, so I thought this would be a killer rocking album, and this is for many of the tracks, but there are also several super slow sleepier tracks that I felt just dragged the album down into dullness for me personally.

From listening to the lyrics, this is definitely a break up album. I wasn’t sure who it’s directed to, but later learned it seems to be directed towards lead singer Natalie Maines ex-husband.

Overall, this is a good album, despite my complaints about the slower tracks. The slow tracks are not like “Cowboy Take Me Away” or “Easy Silence”, as that would’ve been awesome. But the majority of the tracks on this are fantastic. My favorites ended up being, “Gaslighter”, “Sleep at Night”, “Texas Man”, “For Her”, “Julianna Calm Down”, “My Best Friend’s Weddings”, “Tights on my Boat”, “Hope It’s Something Good.”

But I didn’t care for “March March” nor these three tracks that are too dull for me to vibe, “Young Man”, “Set Me Free” and “Everybody Loves You”.

I love 8 out of the 12 tracks, so that’s actually really good, but I hope on their next album they put more fast tempo tunes like the title track, “Gaslighter”.

So yeah, I love this album. It’s everything I hoped it would be and so, so much more than I expected. And I admittedly, I had very high expectations. (There’s always a worry when an artist you love puts out new music that you might not like it. That’s happened to me with other artists before.)

But not with this one. Their voices have matured so well which is not always the case with singers. And their instrumental talents appear to be expanded even beyond the virtuoso status they already displayed on their previous albums and concerts.

And the songwriting is just spectacular. They have always been such good storytellers, but they have surpassed their past storytelling efforts by leaps and bounds. Their crafting of the stories and the phrasing is remarkable. And they have placed the perfect melodies and instrumentation to go along with it.

This just cements their already iconic status even more.

I think that this is a perfect evolution and maturity of their music. It’s modern but also classic. It keeps all the elements that make Chicks’ music great. Powerful lead vocals. Perfect harmonies. Extraordinary instrumentation. Remarkable storytelling. It’s amazing that they have produced something this spectacular after such a long hiatus. The release of this album has gone so well for them despite, and perhaps a little bit because of the delay in its release.

I can’t wait to see these songs performed live whenever that is able to happen. I’ll be there for it.

Let me just say, I LOVE this cd so much. I have every cd they’ve ever made and this one is by far my favorite. It’s very personal and surprisingly relatable. The Chicks are such talented, amazing women. I love their voices (Natalie oh Natalie), their instrumentation (all three women), their strength, their music, and writing. They are one of the very few female bands not controlled by the industry. I love their style and the pluck that they display on their recordings and this record is no different. Although Natalie pours her heart out in this, you never ever take her for a fool. She gets her digs in and they are well-deserved digs. I could tell he was trouble when she married him but her kids made it all worth it. This is a fantastic cd and I would encourage all who are interested in buying it. to do so They are my favorite women musicians next to Rhiannon Giddens.