The Chicks released their long-awaited album Gaslighter on July 17, gifting fans their first new music in 14 years. Much of the album is focused on Maines’ divorce from actor Adrian Pasdar, and the album is full of pointed lyrics that paint a picture of the breakdown of the couple’s relationship, which is heavily implied to have been because of Pasdar’s cheating.
Maines and Pasdar married in 2000 and share two sons, Jackson, 19, and Beckett, 16. In July 2017, Maines filed for divorce, and the two went through a drawn-out legal battle that was finally settled in December. “Everyone is drawing from their own lives when they’re contributing lyrics, but, yes, I was definitely the one going through it at the time,” Maines recently told Howard Stern of writing Gaslighter, noting that she can’t specifically discuss her divorce due to a non-disclosure agreement.
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Scroll through for some of The Chicks’ best burns on the album.
‘Gaslighter’
Originally released in March, the album’s title track is a takedown of a toxic man, beginning with lines describing a move to California to follow a partner’s dreams. Here, it’s notable that Pasdar is an actor. Later in the song, Maines sings about her ex’s alleged cheating, declaring, “”Cause, boy, you know exactly what you did on my boat / and, boy, that’s exactly why you ain’t comin’ home / Save your tired stories for your new someone else / ’cause they’re lies.”
The boat referenced is the Nautalee, which Maines bought for Pasdar and is later referenced in another scorcher, “Tights on My Boat.”
‘Sleep at Night’
One of the first lines of “Sleep at Night” is “My husband’s girlfriend’s husband just called me up, how messed up is that? / It’s so insane that I have to laugh / But then I think about our two boys trying to become men / There’s nothing funny about that.”
After asking the song’s recipient how they sleep at night, Maines recalls a show The Chicks played at the Hollywood Bowl. “Remember you brought her to our show at the Hollywood Bowl / She said, ‘I love you, I’m such a fan,’” she sings. “I joked that you can love me as long as long as you don’t love my man / There’s nothing funny about that.”
‘My Best Friend’s Weddings’
A softer kind of savage, “My Best Friend’s Weddings” begins with Maines recalling meting someone at her best friend’s wedding. “Jump twenty years jump twenty years twenty years yeah / Lookin’ back in retrospect / I was never safe I was never safe still not safe yeah / You’d torch me any chance you’d get,” she softly sings.
‘Tights on My Boat’
After wishing her ex a painful death, Maines ponders, “I hope that when you think of me you can’t breathe / I hope you never find a sock to match the other one / Hey will your dad pay your taxes now that I’m done? / I can promise you’re not fooling anyone.”
In the song’s chorus, Maines declares, “And you can tell the girl who left her tights on my boat / that she can have you now.” Maines admitted to Stern that the image of tights on the boat is “not true, that’s just fun,” though she added, “I didn’t say there wasn’t a boat involved, I’m saying there weren’t tights.”
‘Hope It’s Something Good’
After presumably finding out about her partner’s affair, the song’s protagonist offers, “Should I have known? Should I have seen a sign / When did you know, why’d you pretend to try?” In the chorus, Maines declared that if he’s gone, she hopes “it’s really worth it.” “Twenty years of hanging on / Now it all adds up to nothing,” she sings. “Gave up on the moon and back / Thought you’d found a better half / I hope it’s something good.”
‘Set Me Free’
The last song on Gaslighter, “Set Me Free” is a plea to an ex to do just that. “Decency would be for you to sign and release me,” Maines points out, possibly referencing her and Pasdar’s lengthy court battle. “If you ever loved me, then will you do this one last thing? Set me free, set me free.”
