COME ON OVER - SHANIA TWAIN

There is an music CD I bought strictly due to the fact that I was hearing it played so much on my office radio. I cannot remember what station I was listening to at the time (early 1999), but it must have been one of those top-40 stations; or whatever they are called.

I had my own little office back then, and I was often wrapped up in whatever work that I was inspired to do... to justify the extra rent that I had forced myself to pay. The radio was almost always on.

Admittedly I was enjoying the songs. I was well aware of Shania Twain, and repetition of her album Come on Over was paying off. The initial flurry of sales had subsided to that point, I'm sure, but now the slow-movers were the next victims.

I bought Come on Over -- second hand, yes, but I put my money down.

The super-selling album (of many millions of units) was pretty middle-of-the-road to my musically astute ears. The songs were nice in an inoffensive way; and, to me at least, they seemed to be aimed squarely at women. (And the woman in me.)

Last week I had to do some maintenance here at home; I popped in the Come on Over album. (It had not been touched by my hands in years, except to pack away in boxes during moves.) Nice songs to work to. As a matter of fact, what struck me is how uniform the songs are, for the most part. Two of the tunes seemed to blend together; I had not realized one song ended and another had started.

Blandness tends to sell a lot of units/copies. A broad appeal, not straying too much from the center line. Doesn't mean it's not good, but there is some truth to that notion.

Yes, I do like Come on Over. And I'm sure I won't wait another ten years to give it another listen.