Shania Twain”s first single in six years “Today is Your Day,” hit radio and iTunes today. The tune, which she previewed Sunday night on her OWN show, “Why Not? With Shania Twain” is a bromide-filled tune about grabbing the day with gusto. More importantly, it”s also her first song written without ex-husband and producer/collaborator Robert “Mutt” Lange.
The message is uplifting and will surely appeal to anyone going through a tough time as a reminder that it can and will get better. But it”s also in a certain no-nonsense, “don”t expect too much” manner. As she sings, “Life”s gonna kick you around/Brush yourself off no regrets/don”t expect more or less/just go out and give it your best.” In other words, forget dreaming for a better day, today is all you”ve got.
More than anything, she seems to have written the song as a message to herself. As her OWN show chronicled, Lange allegedly slept with her best friend. Twain is now married to former best friend”s former husband (are you still with me?). But she”s had a hell of a time moving on and the stress affected her ability to sing.
Enough of the backstory. How is the actual song? Well, it”s a bit snoozy. The good news is that Twain sounds reasonably strong vocally. She”s not pushing or belting in any way, but she”s upfront and center. However, her delivery is hardly the peppy rallying call that the lyrics call for and if a song ever demanded to be uptempo, this would be it, instead of the slow mid-tempo draggy tempo we have here. And perhaps in an effort to compensate for that, producer Nathan Chapman has surrounded her (after a relatively uncluttered start to the song) with a banjo, strings and assorted other instrumentation.
Is it just us or isn”t the piano opening totally reminiscent of “Easy” from The Commodores? That”s kind of funny since Twain, who will start a Las Vegas residency in 2012, cut a remake of “Endless Love” with ex-head Commodore Lionel Richie.