I slept on Gaslighter, despite how much I've enjoyed the Chicks' earlier back catalogue - a few cursory listens when it was released in 2020, only returning to it a few weeks back and even then over several listens finding nothing particularly notable about it. But then the first time I listened to it properly, with no distractions, it punched through - this is something deliberately a bit different, with of-the-moment pop elements strongly reflected in both the production and the song-writing, while still carrying readily recognisable elements of the contemporarily flavoured country they made their own across Wide Open Spaces (1998) to Taking the Long Way (2006). Listened to on its own terms, and probably in that order (personality-laden pop with elements of country, rather than vice versa), it's good - the tunes are strong even though a bit different than we're used to from them, the heart's still there, and there's a creativity that while not always fully coherent, still produces plenty of moments worth the listening.
