The first taste of the long-awaited new Dixie Chicks album—due to arrive May 1st—has arrived in the way of its title track, “Gaslighter.” With a video that features powerful women throughout history in addition to the Dixie Chicks decked out in modified military-styled uniforms, the song addresses, with on-the-nose specifics, Maines’ recent divorce after a draining two-year legal battle.
The sound is classic Dixie Chicks: effervescent production, tight harmonies, an undercurrent of driving banjo and acoustic guitars propelled by bombastic, rock & roll drums, while lyrically listing off all the issues of an ex that “lie, lie, lies” but insists it’s the narrator that’s the crazy one.
Dixie Chicks’ new album Gaslighter arrives in stores May 1st
With lyrics that address deeply specific moments (“you know exactly what you did on my boat”) and offer up karmic observations (“you made your bed and then your bed caught fire”), “Gaslighter” is in the tradition of songs such as Bob Dylan’s “Idiot Wind” that make you feel like you’re eavesdropping on the end of a relationship. But breaking up never sounded this defiant, resilient, and downright exciting.
Welcome back, ladies. Oh, how you’ve been missed.
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