"Detours"..Sheryl Crow is Back!

Sheryl Crow rescues her career by turning to Bill Bottrell, her music partner from her first watershed album, “Tuesday Night Music Club”. I’ve liked a lot of her work since then, but she hasn’t produced a CD like that one since she and Bill split in mid-album #2 over what... many people speculate about, and probably only the two of them know.

Bottrell’s a producer/songwriter/musician that brings out the best in Sheryl Crow. This collection is without a doubt a return to form for her and one hopes she’ll work with Bottrell and produce more of this caliber of music.

The collection is really a coupling of two themes, the political Crow and the loved and lovelorn Crow. There are two songs that are exceptions, and they have a lot in common; they are both emotional outbursts from a woman who allowed herself to be featured as part of an “in love duo” in the tabloids, only to be painfully left behind, and a woman who faced and faced down breast cancer.

The crappy:

These two songs, “Diamond Ring” and “Make It Go Away” are whiny, distracting and unworthy of Crow and the rest of the CD. One is a subtle whine about Armstrong and the broken engagement. Even the voice is whiny. The other is a screechy whine about undergoing radiation. While I admire Crow for the hard work she must have done in her recovery from breast cancer, and her unwillingness to milk it for headlines, I really wish she wouldn’t have inflicted this song on the world. Little more needs to be said.

The political:

In her “political protest” mode, Crow gave us 6 songs, which lead off the CD. The reaction to them is varied… if you don’t like politically themed songs, you wouldn’t listen to Sheryl Crow, in my mind. She gives us a “nation is crappy” song, three songs about the middle eastern conflict, a clever song with a “green” theme, and one ditty about the Katrina aftermath.

“God Bless this Mess” (nation is crappy) leads off, it’s totally acoustic, and she wrote the music and lyrics by herself. As we shall see, Crow’s totally individual songs are best when she writes them from a love/life/lovelorn view. When waxing political, the best music and lyrics come when she collaborates. This is a pretty good lead off song, but it is a shade of grey compared to the overall CD flavor. She teams with Bottrell for the world melodies and their themes of conflict. All are memorable and call to mind some of Crow’s best efforts. “Shine Over Babylon” is a poem to the old Iraq, contrasting the middle age way of life to today’s troubles:

”Praise the bloated bank account;
If there’s a God where is he now;
The precipice is slipping further out” …

Bottrell and Crow use Mellotrons for emphasis in the music and metaphors to make you think.

Crow and Bottrell (and two others in collaboration) took a chance with “Peace Be Upon Us” -- the melody and instrumentation are clearly middle eastern in flavor, and Crow’s verses are sung in counterpoint with with the same words in Arabic, as sung by Ahmed Al Himi. The message is simple – a call for peace in both the speech of the Western world and the Middle East. I didn’t read much in protest of this song, but 2-3 years ago, listeners would have spurned Crow’s effort as traitorous. Today, it’s a worthy effort. Ah, the Dubya years.

”Out of Our Heads” has a repetitious chorus, a lot of voices and some unique instrumentation (accordion, pipe, timbale). It definitely tries hard to be a New Age/World Music declaration. Of the political songs, it’s my least favorite.

Sheryl’s obligatory Katrina song is fun and infectious..”Love is Free”. It focuses on the spirit of the residents of New Orleans, and it’s got lyrics to die for:

”You go to church
And pray to God for no more rain
A Cadillac, a paper sack
Hey there, Jack you want some bourbon for the pain?”

And last but not least at all is the imaginative ”Gasoline”. Ben Harper joins the vocals for an apocalyptic song about looking back on the Gasoline wars of 2017. Crow wages the wars all over the globe, from London to Riyadh to Tennessee to Argentina. The lyrics are masterful, and it’s truly a protest song. My favorite line involves the gangs of Mini Coopers battling in the streets. When you hear a Crow song like this you forget the singing and toast the songwriter.

Despite all the high points in the political tunes, the very best of Crow is still to come in the

“Love and Lovelorn” set:

”Detours” song 7 on the CD is the song I think of as ”The paper-thin heart song”, from the refrain. Crow is at her best, questioning a mother (real or imagined) about what to do with the fade to gray that is her ability to fall in love. It’s poignant, and lyrics and music are a spectacular match. “Now That You’re Gone” is a bit repetitious (a Crow flaw) that represents what is maddening about losing a love – she has freedom, but does she really want it? Her third solo outing in a row is the best of the three, ”Drunk With the Thought of You”…simple, engaging, a real songwriter’s description of the high of being in love….”I know you’ve melted my heart in two”.

Sheryl dabbles with a ditty to all of the cruddy little starlets in Hollywood, “Motivation” in song 11. I liked the sparseness of the arrangement, the hand claps, the mocking voice, the clever wording. But I would have probably have skipped the opportunity to hear it, if I could.

She closes strong on her loving themes with:

”Love Is All There Is” -- and this is a song that will stay with you. It asks the question that Crow reportedly has asked herself… “Does Anybody Want You?” and showcases her voice better than any other song on the CD.

And finally, Crow closes with a new door opening in her life, and gives us ”Lullaby for Wyatt" (the name of her newly adopted son). It’s simple and peaceful and has the characteristic I find in the finest lullabies…lifted from the nursery, it coexists as one of those plain old love songs. The kind Sheryl Crow does best:

”How do I keep you from losing your way?
Hope you’ll go out and you’ll come back some day….”

I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed this collection by Sheryl Crow and Bill Bottrell, and how much I hope for more. The CD has enjoyed a lot of airplay in the car over the last six months, and I’m sure that Crow is feeling at home with her music again.