ALBUM REVIEWS

Shania Twain Now Mercury Nashville

When Shania Twain declares on her new album, “I’m independent to a fault / I know this well,” she’s singing about love, but she could also be talking about her career.

Twain broke a lot of the norms in country music in the mid’90s, flaunting her sexuality and incorporating rock riffs into her danceable country-pop melodies. She’s back again after a 15-year break still pushing the boundaries of the genre with her mix of pop, country, dance and rock.

Twain’s ex-husband, former producer and co-writer Robert (Mutt) Lange often got the most credit for her previous multiplatinum albums. But on Now, Twain wrote all the songs herself, a rarity in country and pop music, and her songwriting is lighthearted, hooky and inviting.

These new songs carry the strength and optimism she’s always espoused, with a bit more vulnerability. She goes from the lamentation of Poor Me, about getting dumped for another, to Life’s About to Get Good, in which she affirms: “I’m ready to be loved and love the way I should.”

David Crosby Sky Trails BMG

After decades of groups and collaborations, David Crosby’s solo career has found a second (or fifth?) wind and Sky Trails, his third album since 2015, continues the streak of quality in the quantity. There’s a direct link to Joni Mitchell in a cover of her Amelia. But just as the connection between them goes back some 50 years — Crosby produced Mitchell’s 1968 debut — her influence, whether subtle or obvious, musical or lyrical, can be heard across much of the album.

Crosby has frequently found inspiration in current affairs and now he targets the law-making machinery on Capitol, a tune whose indignation will drip down your earbuds. Sell Me a Diamond also starts off topical but Crosby also finds more personal and delicate aspects to the term “conflict-free.”