When Meghan Trainor titles her fourth album Takin' It Back, it's a tacit acknowledgment that by the time she released Treat Myself in 2020 she had drifted too far away from the swank, swaggering retro-pop of Title -- a sound that she calls "doo wop" but has only a passing connection to the street corner harmony groups of the 1950s. Trainor's music feels as if it was steeped in Grease, a pastiche wrapped in nostalgia for nostalgia, a template that's more flexible than it seems. Since she's not attached to authenticity, she can thread in the glitter-ball disco pulse of "Dance About It" and the self-explanatory "Mama Wanna Mambo" (which inexplicably features Arturo Sandoval) into Takin' It Back just as easily as she can pepper the record with digital flair and modern R&B beats, both of which liven up the title track. Usually, such electronic affectations are merely a part of the execution: the bones of the songs are old-fashioned, the presentation contemporary. This doesn't mean that Takin' It Back is a state-of-the-art pop record. Trainor's dedication to reviving the spirit of Title means that the attitude and melody can occasionally seem preserved in amber -- witness the parade of high-end consumer brands Trainor rattles off on "Made You Look" -- but taken as a whole, separated from trends and fashions, Takin' It Back showcases her knack for hooks and musical theater pizazz with cool efficiency. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine