The Chicks' "Sleep at Night," a standout track and music video from the album Gaslighter, confronts personal trauma in a way that makes for a broadly relatable song. As is the case with the title track, it's no stretch to think that Natalie Maines is taking down ex-husband Adrian Pasdar. After all, it's on a new album he tried to halt due to a confidentiality clause in the couple's prenuptial agreement. That or another ex was guilty of a faux pas at the Hollywood Bowl.
The Chicks (Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer) co-wrote "Sleep at Night" with Gwen Stefani and Justin Bieber collaborator Justin Tranter and Gaslighter co-producer Teddy Geiger.
Stylistic choices on "March March" and other tracks and the decision to work with pop tastemaker Jack Antonoff will be picked apart ad nauseam despite one hard-to-deny truth: Writing universally relatable songs about specific topics, from ugly divorces to the murder of George Floyd, is as country as it gets. Furthermore, the honesty and courage on display in each of these songs better resembles Johnny Cash's bolder material ("San Quentin," "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," "What is Truth") than anything that'll actually get sustained airplay.
As for country radio (or any other country music-focused media outlet), the artists formerly known as The Dixie Chicks aren't worried about impressing a business that once left the trio high and dry due to political differences.
"It's like going back to your abuser," Maines told The Washington Post's Emily Yahr. "Or doing something a second time and hoping for a different outcome or result."
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The decision to drop "Dixie" from the group's name has also been covered in recent interviews. With all due respect to The Chicks' new moniker, an even better name was considered.
"Recently, the one I leaned toward the most if we didn't go with the Chicks, or couldn't go with the Chicks legally, was gonna be MEN," Maines told Vulture. "It's our initials: Martie, Emily, Natalie. I liked that we would go from Chicks to MEN."
"Sleep at Night" Lyrics
Not that you asked
But I'm getting past everything
Everything
I'm doing okay
Just glad it's not yesterday
Huh
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
How do you sleep at night?
How do you tell those lies?
Lookin' me in the eye
Livin' a double life
Tell me, how do you sleep at night?
How do you sleep at night?
You're only as sick as your secrets
So I'm telling everything
Half of the shit
You won't believe
But I know it's not unique to me
Remember you brought her to our show at the Hollywood Bowl
She said, "I love you, I'm such a fan"
I joked that you can love me as long as long as you don't love my man
There's nothin' funny about that
How do you sleep at night?
How do you tell those lies?
Lookin' me in the eye
Livin' a double life
Tell me, how do you sleep at night?
How do you sleep at night?
So caught up in your story
You don't care what you're ruining
So caught up in your story
But you don't care
How do you sleep at night?
How do you tell those lies?
Lookin' me in the eye
Livin' a double life
Tell me, how do you sleep at night?
How do you sleep at night?
How do you tell those lies?
How do you tell those lies?
Lookin' me in the eye
Livin' a double life
Tell me, how do you sleep at night?
How do you sleep at night?
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