compared his bumpy marriage to to a roller coaster named "the Wall of Death" and picks up this carnivalesque thread, calling her troubled relationship with motocross star a on her own entry into a long prestigious line of autobiographical divorce albums that stretches back to . Naturally, doesn't have any musical similarities with either or , but 's divorce album is also emotionally different than either of these classics or 's . , , and layer their albums with self-recriminations and ruminations, niceties that shrugs off in one song, the brooding Other songs allude to the pain of the separation but never in a way that digs deep -- the musically fine blues-rocker trots out cliches, the delicate spooky folk of skirts the divorce, and far from being a primal scream, surges on a hook that pushes away the pain. But as makes clear with the album-opening single -- also co-written with -- she's more than ready to get out of this relationship, thrilled that she's still a rock star, still drinking in the afternoon. That her enthusiastic hedonism kind of contradicts the letter of her -baiting doesn't mean that it violates the spirit, as this is still the same , the one who spits out jokes as she rumbles. This snotty stance is second nature to her, so maybe that's why only really clicks when abandons any pretense of mourning her relationship and just cuts loose with galumphing rhythms and schoolyard taunts, the kind that fuel both and and make them instantly indelible. This kind of oversized, obnoxious pop is where 's heart is at -- she's ready to party and as long as the tempo is high, is a ride, empowered by her post-divorce freedom. In a way, that does make unique among divorce albums, as it's the first to concentrate on liberation rather than loss -- but if she was going to go in this direction, may have been better off not pretending that she's bothered by the breakup. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine