Call the opening of a new chapter of 's career. Shaking loose -- a moody 2016 double-album that found the singer/songwriter sorting through the emotional wreckage of a public divorce -- decided to look on the brighter side for , trading introspection for celebration. That's not the only swap has up her sleeve with this 2019 album. She's parted ways with , the producer behind every album of hers since 2005's , and hired , who previously helmed 's , , both albums, and everything made. The difference is bracing: the surfaces of gleam so brightly, it may be difficult to recognize how varied the album is, in both sound and structure. is almost constructed as a jukebox or playlist spitting out a series of disconnected but related singles. Where was designed as a classic album (two complementary records consisting of songs with interlocking themes), simply cycles through its songs, with the moods and hooks piling up at a rapid rate. Ballads aren't avoided -- the closing "Dark Bars" is an ideal modern-day saloon song -- but the tenor of the record is positively giddy, as if is delighted to venture outside of her comfort zone. She does so often on , indulging in the retro-'80s rock of "Mess with My Head" and its new wave twin "Track Record," co-opting electronic R&B for "White Trash," digging into swamp-funk on "Holy Water," and leaning hard into the metallic blur of "Locomotive." All these sly departures sit alongside familiar moves, whether it's the melancholic sway of "Bluebird," the bawdy humor of "Mess with My Head," or "Way Too Pretty for Prison," where the presence of helps bring 's old duet "Somethin' Bad" to mind. Taken on an individual basis, each track is clever and playful, yet the cumulative effect of is ever so slightly slight, a possible side effect of an album meant to be nothing but a party. Perhaps that may mean that isn't as emotionally resonant as some of 's other records, but there's no denying she's delivered exactly what she intended with this album: It's one hell of a good time. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine