Shania Twain returns to music with a wild new album | Music | Entertainment

Man, she feels like a new woman… Shania’s back and she’s full of life. But can she ever be as big as she used to be? The Canadian country star shifted more than 100 million records in the 90s, trading in a potent mix of country roots and pop sensibility.

Classics like Man! I Feel Like A Woman and That Don’t Impress Me Much made her one of the biggest icons on the planet.

Her 1997 album Come On Over sold 40 million copies alone. But the hits dried up when the Ontario-born singer hit the buffers in the Noughties.

Lengthy health battles – with Lyme disease and dysphonia – threatened to rob her of her voice. And her break-up with husband Mutt Lange, her producer and co-writer, robbed her of her muse.

We waited 15 years for her 2017 comeback, Now.

Queen Of Me is more of a knees-up. Giddy Up! bursts out of the traps full of energy and suggestive fun.

“When it gets tough, gotta get a little love,” she sings. “Put some up in your giddy, giddy up.”

The foot-tapping, life-affirming Waking Up Dreaming starts with Hey Mickey drums and, over a wave of synths, celebrates the joy of being in love. The buoyant pop verse sweeps along to an irresistible chorus.

Twain’s voice sounds fully restored, maybe a little deeper, and confidence and variety abound.

Musical styles range from Number One, an upbeat dance groove, to the more whimsical Last Day Of Summer, an achingly reflective grower that looks back to a first kiss with a lost love.

Less air-playable is the potty-mouthed Pretty Liar as Shania targets a love rat: “So you got a big gun and you really wanna come show me how you wave it, but save it for someone who cares…”

Yeah.

She’s back in the game.