Click photo for larger image. Dixie Chicks "Taking the long way" (Sony)

Well, they've certainly taken the long way to power pop. The Dixie Chicks arrived via three independent country-sweetheart CDs (before adding lead singer Natalie Maines), two ultra-successful mainstream country albums, a progressive country CD that broke both the rules and new ground, and a high-profile professional implosion.

"Taking the Long Way," the Dixie Chicks' new CD with producer Rick Rubin, is by and large a power-pop experiment with some traditional instrumentation. However you define "country," this isn't it. Famous for helping artists from Johnny Cash to Run DMC to clearly communicate through music, Rubin teamed the Chicks with pop and alt-country co-writers and put them in the studio with a pick-up rock band that includes members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tom Petty's Heartbreakers.

The result is an album of contradictions. Is it political? Not at all, yet several of the songs fiercely defend the Chicks' right to be, should they ever decide to put their political convictions on a disc. Is it country? Even in a world where Trace Adkins' rocking "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" is a country hit, it's easy to say the Chicks have pretty much kissed country goodbye. Is it rock? Not by contemporary rock or pop rock standards, with ample acoustic guitar and occasional banjo and fiddle fills.

"The Long Way Around" is like the Dixie Chicks' "Ballad of John and Yoko" -- a light recap of preceding events. The Chicks get angry on "Not Ready to Make Nice" and tweak the celebrity culture that made them rich and infamous on "Everybody Knows." "Lubbock or Leave It" spanks small-town hypocrisy as it builds a head of rock 'n' roll steam before breaking down with tasty banjo and fiddle and the Chicks' rich harmonies.

Many of the songs avoid mention of the "incident." "Easy Silence" is a comfortable love song, and "Lullaby" sings the Chicks' children to sleep. In form and subject matter, "Silent House" is perhaps the closest to a Chicks-style country album cut. But amid the rolling Celtic melody of "Bitter End," the Chicks seem to be waving farewell to a country crowd that has largely abandoned them.