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Liam Carey reviews
Up!
Mercury
- Year: 2002
- Rating: 8/10
- Cat. No: 170 344-2
Track listing:
CD1 – RED “ELECTRIC” VERSION
- 1. Up!
2. I’m Gonna Get You Good!
3. She’s Not Just A Pretty Face
4. Juanita
5. Forever And For Always
6. Ain’t No Partuicular Way
7. It Only Hurts When I’m Breathing
8. Nah!
9. (Wanna Get To Know You) That Good!
10. C’est La Vie
11. I’m Jealous
12. Ka-Ching!
13. Thank You Baby! (For Makin’ Someday Come So Soon)
14. Waiter! Bring Me Water!
15. What A Way To Wanna Be!
16. I Ain’t Goin’ Down
17. I’m Not In The Mood (To Say No)!
18. In My Car (I’ll Be The Driver)
19. When You Kiss Me
CD2 – BLUE “RHYHTMIC” VERSION
- 1. Up!
2. I’m Gonna Get You Good!
3. She’s Not Just A Pretty Face
4. Juanita
5. Forever And For Always
6. Ain’t No Partuicular Way
7. It Only Hurts When I’m Breathing
8. Nah!
9. (Wanna Get To Know You) That Good!
10. C’est La Vie
11. I’m Jealous
12. Ka-Ching!
13. Thank You Baby! (For Makin’ Someday Come So Soon)
14. Waiter! Bring Me Water!
15. What A Way To Wanna Be!
16. I Ain’t Goin’ Down
17. I’m Not In The Mood (To Say No)!
18. In My Car (I’ll Be The Driver)
19. When You Kiss Me
Woah! Shania is back! Yeah! You go girl! Bring it on!
If nothing else, Twain sure knows how to use her exclamation marks. English teachers and publishing editors around the world might despair, but dang! she just wants to have a good time!
And she does, bringing her infectious, easy-on-the-ear brand of what used to be known as FM Rock to the masses again after a lengthy hiatus following Come On Over‘s 34-million sales and enduring success that stretched from late 1997 right through to the 21st Century’s dawning. Wow!
Up! – distinuguishing itself from the recent Peter Gabriel release by utilising that handy exclamation mark – clocks in at no less than 19 brand-new songs and 78 minutes. Twice over! You see, Up! marks the possible arrival of a worrying (and time-consuming!) trend of issuing an album with the tracks recorded in two separate versions. Shania’s sleevenotes talk amiably of artistic expression and offering listeners the choice of interpretation to suit their mood or tastes (it’s what she herself does with Up!, apparently). Whatever her motives, the result is not only a more expensive CD, since it’s a double, but also way too much music. Somehow we’ve moved from the classic 40-minute album, to the chaff-inclusive 70-minute CD, and now the 150-minute “cover-all-bases” behemoth in barely a decade or so. Believe it or not, there is even a third (!) incarnation of these tracks, dubbed the “GREEN” version, to be found exclusively on her website. Enough!
Anyway, back to the music itself, seeing as there’s so much of it on show. Up! compensates for its conceptual and punctuational excesses with a largely flawless assemblage of airbrushed pop-rock, made all the more appealing by its sense of fun and self-deprecating humour. When one of the most beautiful women on Earth sings about wishing she could grow a beard to cover up her facial spots, as she does on the irrepressible and bouncy opening title track, it’s obvious that a tongue/cheek interface is taking place. Hahaha!
Shania, in collaboration once more with husband Robert “Mutt” Lange, pulls out all the stops – no chorus too big, no arrangement too OTT, no lyric too silly, no sentiment too syrupy – yet, their aim is almost unerringly true. These people know what they’re doing, and exactly how to best do it. Up! therefore has a professionalism, certainly, but not at the expense of fun and entertainment. Few albums in 2002 can claim to give a better ratio of feelgood vibes per pound/euro/dollar/yen/currency of choice.
Perhaps an initial drawback for this successor to the biggest-selling album by a female artist of all-time is the apparent lack of something so immediately commercial as That Don’t Impress Me Much, or a ballad likely to capture lovers’ imaginations quite the way You’re Still The One or From This Moment On managed to do. Come On Over’s unprecented popularity was driven by such singles, but it remains to be seen if fan loyalty will be enough to see Up! through.
However, this record has its share of less obvious gems. The opening trio of Up!, first single I’m Gonna Get You Good! and She’s Not Just A Pretty Face kick things off in fine style, all bursting to the brim with immaculately constructed hooklines. It Only Hurts When I’m Breathing and I’m Jealous score highly on the smooch-ometer, although Forever And For Always, Thank You Baby! and the closing When You Kiss Me are less engaging slushfests. Gah!
The album is at its most persuasive on the uptempo tracks, especially those with the most joi de vivre such as the cheesy, Abba-esque, 70s power pop of C’est La Vie or, most memorably, the glorious put-down that is Nah! – That Don’t Impress Me Much Part 2, maybe, but simply inspired nonetheless. Likewise, to a slightly lesser extent, the anti-consumerism of Ka-Ching!
The formula is not wholly foolproof; a few songs seem too contrived, as though they only exist to make use of more quirky titles – In My Car (I’ll Be The Driver), Waiter! Bring Water!, I’m Not In The Mood (To Say No)! spring to mind. Nothing, though, spoils the party; Up! is an admirably enjoyable experience, performed with confidence and affection.
Damn! Review copyright © Liam Carey, 2002. E-mail Liam Carey
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.