Shania Twain - The Complete Woman in Me Video Collection [VHS]
This compilation of video clips from Shania Twain's breakthrough second album,The Woman in Me,  follows the transplanted Canadian singer-songwriter's fast track from "new country" newcomer to crossover contender and diva-in-training.  Both musically and visually, the set's eight tracks shift quickly from the mannered country settings and modest production values of the opening "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" to the big-budget scale and soft-focus pop romanticism of the title song: from her earliest videos' down-home settings in funky coffee shops and sun-dappled meadows (where we see the heroine riding her horse, naturally), the viewer is transported to the Sahara and gliding shots of Twain, bedecked in a gauzy gown, strolling past pyramids and temple ruins as if enacting some regal reincarnation.From that point forward, the visual artifacts of conventional country videos retreat, even as Twain's flirty, feisty persona dials down its country accents to embrace a more mainstream synthesis of pop and rock.  Twain's brand of charisma is often very broad indeed, punctuated with winks and hearty wiggles, and her "controversial" sexuality (as measured by Nashville's demure standards) translates to occasional deployment of her buffed midriff and décolletage. Fans will revel in her hale, camera-savvy image and hooky but utterly conventional songs, even if more neutral observers may detect a certain generic safety in Twain's repurposed array of romantic sentiments laced with flashes of self-reliance.--Sam Sutherland