The Chicks Fight the Good Fight on Gaslighter
The band formerly known as the Dixie Chicks come for abusers, cheaters and injustice on first album in 14 years
The Chicks have never tolerated liars, cheaters or scoundrels. They coaxed dirty secrets from their lovers’ mouths on “Let ‘Er Rip,” promising strength in the face of the truth. In another case, the offender in question was such a scumbag they plotted his murder. In 2006, on their most recent album Taking The Long Way, they still weren’t ready to make nice. While they’re famous for romantic songs like “Cowboy Take Me Away” and hopeful ballads like “Wide Open Spaces,” Natalie Maines, Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Strayer have always been tough as nails.
After Maines criticized then-president George W. Bush at a London concert in 2003, they were forced to prove their strength in a whole new way. They were all but totally ousted from the country music community, banned from radio stations and, ultimately, blacklisted. Following their 2006 release, they quietly retreated from public view until last year when they appeared on Taylor Swift’s Lover track “Soon You’ll Get Better” and began teasing a new album on Instagram. “Soon You’ll Get Better” was a song about Swift’s mother fighting cancer, and some conservatives still despised them. And then, a few weeks ago, after Black Lives Matter protests gripped the U.S., the trio dropped the word “dixie,” which holds historically racist connotations, from their band name in an effort to “meet the moment.” And thus, The Chicks were hatched.
So it should come as no surprise that the band are consistently resilient on their relentless fifth LP Gaslighter. The same Natalie, Martie and Emily who threatened their best friend’s cheating husband on “Goodbye Earl” are fired up on every Gaslighter song, particularly “Sleep At Night,” where Maines asks, “My husband’s girlfriends’ husband just called me / And how messed up is that? / It’s so insane that I have to laugh,” before adding, “But then I think about our two boys trying to become men / there’s nothing funny about that” and recounting the instance where her husband brought the aforementioned side piece to a Chicks show. How does he sleep at night, indeed. She later sets her children free from her own struggles and encourages them to “leave the bad news behind” on the heartbreaking “Young Man.” The instinct to nurture and protect (in these cases, Maines’ sons) pops up again and again on Gaslighter, and it very often takes the shape of standing up for the abused—even if that includes themselves.
The title track spits fire at the abuser in question, forcing him to come to terms with his horrible actions. “Boy, you know exactly what you did on my boat,” Maines sings, before joining Martie and Emily on what has to be the most cleansing chorus of 2020: “Gaslighter, big timer / repeating all of the mistakes of your father / Gaslighter, you broke me / You’re sorry, but where’s my apology?” Later we find out what exactly went down on Maines’ sea vessel (extramarital relations, obviously), as she looks for revenge on “Tights On My Boat,” singing, “I hope you die peacefully in your sleep / just kidding, I hope it hurts like you hurt me.” Pardon my French, but damn. “You’re gonna get what you’ve got comin’ to ya,” she later swears. Perhaps it’s not exactly in line with my feminism to state this, but hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.