Come On Over

11/04/1997 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Bob Gulla

What do Nashville and Shania Twain have in common? Nothing, actually. Twain's new release shares more with mainstream pop albums by Bryan Adams or Pat Benatar than anything relating to Tennessee. Twain and husband--co-writer, producer Mutt Lange--must be having a good laugh together down on Music Row raking in skiploaders of cash and sniggering about making a (nearly) totally twangless pop album in the cradle of twang and still be accepted with a big bear hug. Come On Over, the successor to Twain's nine-times platinum The Woman In Me , doesn't have a country bone in its comely little frame. Lange's experience with acts like Def Leppard and Adams soaks through the disc like water through a cotton t-shirt. The drums whack out rock cliches, the guitars reel off major chords, the power ballads drip treacly tears. Only understated appearances by Nashville sessioneers like guitarist Brent Mason, pedal steel player Bruce Bouton and fiddler Larry Franklin keep this at least tangentially related to Music City. Taken as a pop project then, Come On Over isn't particularly bad. Songs like the Bonnie Raitt-inspired "If You Wanna Touch Her, Ask," and the thumping-yet-sultry "Honey I'm Home" hit a few singalong marks. Still, to paraphrase the song, Come On Over is a very little bit country and a whole lotta rock 'n' roll.