Shania Twain

The week the Come on Over: The International Version appeared in the States, Come on Over was still in the Top 20 after spending over two years on the charts and selling over 14 million copies. That is massive success and it's all the more remarkable because the hits on pop radio were not on the album. Each single was remixed and refurbished -- most notably the dance reworking of "That Don't Impress Me Much" -- with an eye on Top 40 and adult contemporary radio, plus foreign markets that wanted Shania the pop diva, not Twain the country crooner. Actually, the original versions weren't all that country to begin with; they were adult contemporary pop tunes with the occasional violin or steel guitar -- enough to make Come on Over seem like country on the surface, but at its heart, it was pop music. That's why the single remixes were so successful -- they revealed the true nature of the song. Similarly, The International Version feels more genuine than the original, since it has no qualms embracing the gaudy thrills of pop. Every cut on Come on Over has been remixed for this version and the sequencing has changed. Each track benefits from this tinkering, since these versions are giddily infectious and present Shania as the pop diva she really is. In this incarnation, Come on Over stands as the best pop diva album of the late '90s -- playful, funny, tuneful, catchy, amusing, sexy. No diva has delivered a record this consistently fun in years -- not Mariah, not Whitney, not Madonna (who abandoned the whole idea of fun during the '90s, anyway). Sure, almost all of its best qualities are on the surface but that's precisely why it's irresistible. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi