At 46 years old, Sheryl Crow, the quintessential sun baked, liberal flag waving rock chick, has had her fair share of highs and lows, much of which she has documented on record.
Indeed, love her or loathe her, you can’t deny her almost masochistic honesty, be it revealing her favourite mistake with a certain guitar god, or expressing her political and environmental beliefs (remember, kids, use only one square of toilet paper per potty trip). And Detours, her sixth studio album, looks to be no different.
The album marks the return of producer/ co-writer Bill Bottrell, who last worked with Crow on her 1993 breakthrough Tuesday Night Music Club – which earned the outspoken singer three Grammy Awards and sold more than ten million copies worldwide – before their relationship disintegrated into a 15 year long slanging match.
“This is the most honest record I’ve ever made. It’s about being forced to wake up,” says Crow.
They say:
All Music Guide: “With any luck, this album isn’t a one time journey down a side road but rather the touchstone for the next act in her career.”
Billboard: “The roots rock of Detours is old school sounding Crow now with a heightened consciousness of the world around her.”
Slant Magazine: “An album that’s as intensely personal as it is fiercely political.”
We say:
It’s a game of two halves on Detours, but for all the right reasons. The first half of the album concerns itself with the world at large, with the hypocrisy of George W Bush’s war on terror public enemy number one.
Crow bemoans “a war all based on lies” and its traumatic effect on a soldier and his family on the sparse, acoustic driven ‘God Bless This Mess’. On ‘Out of Our Heads’, a curiously upbeat pop number tinged with disco ambitions, she implores the “children of Abraham” to “lay down your fears, swallow your tears” and on ‘Peace Be Upon Us’, she fuses opulent Arabic elements with Vietnam era psychedelia, with singer Ahmed Al Hirmi riding shotgun.
The latter half, meanwhile, is far more personal and intimate, addressing all the bullshit Crow has recently had to endure. It’s also less eclectic as she and Bottrell strip down the album’s rootsy rock sound to complement the Dear Diary like entries.
The sleep deprived ‘Make It Go Away’ laments her much publicised 2006 bout with breast cancer, looking for the ‘why’ to “make some sense of this”. ‘Diamond Ring’ sinks its teeth into the breakdown of her tabloid friendly engagement to cycling champ Lance Armstrong. Even ‘Lullaby for Wyatt,’ a heartfelt dedication to her ickle son, packs a melancholic twist, with the inevitability of the newborn fleeing the nest always looming (“And this I’ll know/ Is you were mine/ For a time”).
Part political, part personal, Detours is a courageous and powerful piece and one that showcases a female icon back on top form.
Like this? Try these:
Bruce Springsteen – Magic
Sheryl Crow – Tuesday Night Music Club
The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
RELEASED
18th Feb ‘08
LABEL
Interscope
POSTED...
Sun 17 Feb at 12:22pm
