Music Review: Now on vinyl, Shania Twain's 'Greatest Hits' shines anew

Shania Twain is familiar with the concept of a hit.

Her second album “The Woman in Me" sold 20 million copies. Her next, “Come On Over," sold 40 million. Her 2004 “Greatest Hits” album was one of its own, selling more than half a million copies in its first week — enough to become the fastest-selling hits album by a female artist in the United States, per the Guinness World Records. It has since been certified four times platinum.

Now, as vinyl records and their players see a resurgence, that album has been remastered for vinyl, available Friday.

The collection, like its original, opens with the shimmery pop version of “Forever and For Always," a proper introduction to the genre and Shania fun enclosed. This version — coming 19 years after its original release — adds a track from each of the Canadian country star's most recent albums: “Life’s About To Get Good” from 2017’s “Now" and “Giddy Up!” from this year’s “Queen of Me."

The 23 songs reveal the cross-genre prowess that saw Twain climb both country and pop charts, and then allowed future country-pop artists — especially female country-pop artists — to do the same. Casual fans won't notice huge differences in the remastered tracks. The rousing drum beat and melodic fiddle on “Any Man of Mine” still provides a rich background to Twain's strong vocals, but feels sharpened. The futuristic intro of “I'm Gonna Getcha Good!” sounds brighter, “Up!” is still aggressively catchy and optimistic.

Missing, like in 2004, are any songs from Twain's self-titled debut album. The hits begin instead with those from “The Woman in Me,” her second album and the first produced by her then-husband Robert “Mutt” Lange. As she told The Associated Press in 2020, that album made her a star, but more importantly, gave her more control of her artistry. "In my mind, I was just being myself and that was the great thing of all — to just be able to be myself and let my personality come through in the music,” she said.

That personality shines through on the remastered tracks, its strength emphasized by her consistency. Twain's voice may have changed in the years between 2002's “Up!” and “Now” and amid her battle with Lyme disease, but it's clear she is as confident on “Life's About to Get Good” and “Giddy Up!" as she is on iconic hits like “Man! I Feel Like a Woman" and “That Don't Impress Me Much.”

It's surprising that it took this long for Twain's “Greatest Hits" to make it to vinyl — in many ways, a physical record seems like the perfect vessel for such a hitmaker's greatest hits. The package now comes at a perfect moment: amid a surge in Shania love on the heels of her first tour in five years, ahead of her 2024 return to Las Vegas and just in time for the holidays.