Amanda Shires Take It Like a Man LP (Red Vinyl)

GRAMMY and Americana Award-winning singer/songwriter and violinist Amanda Shires has pushed the reset button with Take It Like a Man, a record that is so unlike anything she has ever recorded that you would be tempted to think it was her debut album instead of her seventh.

Shires, who also created and plays in The Highwomen, worked with producer Lawrence Rothman (Angel Olsen, Kim Gordon) to make a fearless confessional, showing the world what turning 40 looks like in 10 emotionally raw tracks.

showcases Shires' towering vocal ability, which is too often overlooked, as well as her lyrical and musical gifts; it's her best album yet, and one of the best of the year

Shires' first album in a while that feels fully self-contained, as if she decided that the only person she needs to impress with these songs is herself. By removing herself from competition with anyone else, Shires emerges as a clear winner. Take It Like a Man is a worthy prize.

dwells in the space between grand pop balladry and Memphis soul

Amanda Shires has been waiting to take her throne for too long, but Take It Like A Man is the record that finally confirms her ascension. Long live the Queen. Americana finally has a pop icon it can be proud of.

The opening track 'Hawk for the Dove' is gloriously ominous in its minor key menace, Shires' bold confessions of her worst appetites, and a fiddle solo that recalls Neil Young's guitar at its most buzzy and fractured. The song throws down a gauntlet that this isn't what you'd expect from Amanda Shires, and while it's the most confrontational moment on Take It Like A Man, the glorious evocation on 1960s Deep Soul in 'Stupid Love,' the Bacharach/David echoes of 'Lonely at Night,' the vintage AM pop strut of 'Here He Comes,' and the sweet gospel accents of 'Everything Has Its Time' leave no doubt that Shires has the talent to do whatever she chooses and make it her own... Amanda Shires' previous work, on her own and as a collaborator, has long proved she is a major talent, and with Take It Like A Man, she's made a striking, deeply satisfying album that follows no rules other than what her muse has chosen, and it's inarguably her finest work to date.

This is music built to take flight, and, perhaps more importantly, to take flight alongside, the kinds of songs that inspire action in their listeners. Reaching such heights should land Shires among our finest pantheon of artists.

an incisive songwriter and solo artist

a poetic, intense rumination

genre-defying mix of earthy country and folk songs, horn-fueled soul, jazzy balladry, swaggering rock and more

her most powerful vocal performance to date