(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Sheryl Crow, originally from Missouri, arrived in Los Angeles in 1986. She was discovered by Michael Jackson, who hired her for one of his tours, and from that point on she became one of the most sought-after backup singers for rock stars (Don Henley, Chrissie Hynde, Neil Young, Sinead OConnor).
The singer-songwriter recorded an album in 1992 (for A&M) that was never released, and then finally, at the age of 34, Tuesday Night Music Club (A&M, 1994). She produced the album herself, playing a variety of instruments (guitar, bass, organ, piano, etc.). The hit I Just Wanna Have Fun, an exuberant shuffle, only scratched the surface of her subdued existentialism, better represented by the dramatic atmospheres of Run Baby Run. Her melodic talent propelled the delicate Strong Enough, the catchy The Na-Na Song (with traces of the Beatles), and the jazzy ballad We Do What We Can. The album, which owes much to the collaboration of David Baerwald, made her a star: it would sell seven million copies within five years.
The self-titled album of 1996 features hard-rock (Maybe Angels) and funky (Love Is A Good Thing) sounds that contrast with her image as a faint-voiced street troubadour. More in line with her personality are instead the austere ballad Redemption Day and the measured gospel of A Change. Only Sweet Rosalyn and Everyday Is A Winding Road hark back to the disenchanted hit of two years earlier. Drawing on the classic models of Neil Young (in the cadence) and Bob Dylan (in the chorus), Crow shapes the gospel Hard To Make A Stand, perhaps the emotional peak of the album. Success smiled on If It Makes You Happy, which leans toward the blues-rock of the Black Crowes and has a far more sly and melancholic tone than her first hit. Her vocal delivery suddenly became more mature, abandoning adolescent enthusiasm for a depressed, abrasive tone, at times even provocative.
Globe Sessions (A&M, 1998) gathers another handful of those disenchanted chants. Her specialty is clearly the loose, catchy shuffles of My Favorite Mistake and It Dont Hurt (with Lisa Germano on violin).
This time the deployment of resources is truly impressive: the chorus of Here Goes The Neighborhood is punctuated by a horn section, and even a twelve-piece string section appears (including cellists Jane Scarpantoni and Garo Yellin) for the psychedelic raga Riverwide, in which she skirts the underbelly of Sgt Pepper.
Not only is inspiration lacking, but also a hit capable of saving the album. An imitation of Tom Petty, Anything But Down, comes closest.
Crow was merely a pale, more pop-oriented copy of Bonnie Raitt.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
The albums of the new century continued the downhill trend, but each contained
a successful single (basically, the only reason to buy the album):
Soak up the Sun, off C'mon C'mon (2002),
Good Is Good and
Always on Your Side,
off Wildflower (2005),
Crow was dating cyclist Lance Armstrong between 2003 and 2006.
Detours (A&M, 2008) is an eclectic collection that, musically, fares a lot
better than anything else in a decade. However, some of the best songs are
political in nature, and one has to cope with lyrics as competent as the
haringue of a fist-thumping television anchor
(Gasoline, Love Is Free). She is at her best when she minds the
music, as in Shine Over Babylon. Overall, it's honest and entertaining,
but also terribly old-fashioned.
100 Miles from Memphis (2010) suffered from very mediocre material.
She also composed music and lyrics of the musical "Diner" (2014).
She embraced Nashville's country sound on Feels Like Home (2013) and
Easy became her highest charting single since 2005.
Be Myself (2017)
Threads (2019)
Evolution (2023)
