Sheryl Crow
Detours
A&M Records
5 tablespoons of Bosco (Out of 5)
Reviewed by Allen Bacon
Editor
Bosco: The Blog
Sheryl Crow has packed a lot of living in the last two years. During that period she has stared down and beat breast cancer, had a much publicized breakoff with her boyfriend and on the positive side adopted a child.
So eager anticipation greeted her latest album, released last week. Would the new album Detours have Crow come out fighting? Would she acknowledge the challenges in her life over the past couple of her years? Would she choose to elaborate on her positions on environmental issues and the current administration?
The answer to all of those questions is a resounding yes.
It’s all there. This is probably her most autobiographical and introspective album of her career. She writes (well I think she does anyway) about her breakup in "Now That You’re Gone", "Diamond Ring", and Drunk With The Thought of You. She writes about her fight with cancer and the chemotherapy in “Make It Go Away (Radiation Song)”. She writes about her adopted son in “Lullaby for Wyatt”.
With all of these things going on in her life, you would think that this wouldn’t leave any room for her outspokeness against the current administration. But there is plenty of room for that in “God Bless This Mess” and “Shine Over Babylon” or her thoughts on Dependency on Foreign Oil in the in-your face and futuristic tale “Gasoline”. Or on the aftermath of Katrina in “Love is Free”. And there are the happy and feel good songs in the vein of “Soak up the Sun”. In this album those songs are the world beat influenced songs “Peace Be Upon Us” where Ahmed Al Himi co-sings beautifully in Arabic and “Love Is All There Is” which has a beautifully Israeli-inspired feel to it.
In many ways this album sounds familiar…and that’s a good thing. Bill Bottrell, Crow’s producer on her first two Grammy winning albums and longtime writing partner is back. Bottrell and Crow patched up their less than amicable split and the award-winning Bottrell who also has produced the likes of Toy Matinee, Tom Petty, Rusted Root, Traveling Wilburys, Roseanne Arquette and a host of other successful acts returns to put his distinctive stamp on this album. So some of this sounds like Tuesday Night Music Club, her first album, or the self-named album Sheryl Crow.
There’s also room for the experimental here. The almost primal-screaming in “Diamond Ring” and “Make It Go Away” is different from anything she has ever recorded. Crow is possibly at her best when she is entirely on her own and it’s just her, her guitar and her voice on “God Bless this Mess”.
This also is a lot like those wonderful albums that Joni Mitchell or Carole King used to put out in the 60’s and 70’s. It has a little fun, a little sweetness, some introspection, some heartbreak, great songwriting thrown in with some social commentary.
I saw Crow and her band in Irvine, CA in the last quarter of 2006 and she was well on the way to mending after the chemotherapy and the cancer and the breakup…she was strong and delivered a great, albeit, short set (we just wanted more that’s all…it wouldn’t be enough no matter how long she played…). This album completes the cycle. She’s back completely and better than ever.
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