The Last Boomer Rock Star
I always found it odd that of all pop music, it’s Sheryl Crow’s that is most likely to send my 16-year-old into paroxysms of abhorrence.
On it’s face Crow’s music is unexceptionable: it’s unpretentious and catchy; well written, well played, and well sung (even my daughter would admit). Perhaps for some, Crow’s Sara Lee quality is a turn off (nobody doesn’t like Sheryl Crow). But I think my daughter’s beef has little to do with Crow’s music and lots to do with Crow as a social signifier.
Sheryl Crow’s music is the sound of soccer mom nation. It’s not just the kind of music your mother would like, it’s the kind of music your mother would make (and maybe does at the local weekly coffee house in the church basement): midtempo rock, sing-along choruses, strummed acoustic guitar (the very sound of which is enough to inspire a conditioned revulsion response in many Americans below the age of 18), and, on Crow’s latest album, explicitly political lyrics.
Born in suburban St. Louis at the tail end of the baby boom, college-educated, a former school teacher and jingle singer, Crow is your mom turned rock star. She doesn’t self-consciously trade on boomer rock nostalgia the way, say, the Black Crowes do. In fact, throughout her career Crow has deliberately charted a sonic middle path between modern, loop-based pop and handmade guitar rock. Still, for listeners under 18, that sound–or at least that sound as it resonates among soccer moms–coming from a 46 year old, projects nostalgia if even it doesn’t intend to. Midtempo rock, sing along choruses, and strummed acoustic guitar are one thing coming from Tom Petty (nobody doesn’t like Freefallin’), who was 12 or 13 when the Beatles played Ed Sullivan. They’re another thing coming from a woman a year younger than Barack Obama.
But it would be a shame to let whatever cultural baggage she carries (intentionally or unintentionally) to obscure her gifts: indelible melody, lyrics whose rhythmic scansion fit their musical grooves like a bespoke suit, and immaculate vocal pitch and clarity (you can see why she was a successful jingle and backup singer). The simple truth is that Crow is a fine musician, singer and songwriter and with Detours (a substantial 14-track CD released on Super Tuesday) she has once again crafted a strong, radio-ready rock album of the sort few people make anymore and none with more apparent ease.
(Although Crow told Jon Pareles of the New York Times “There’s something really fantastic about knowing I’m not going to get played at radio,â€Â I count at least 6 undeniable smash hits from the elegiac rock ballad Shine Over Babylon to Love is All There Is with its George Harrisonesque guitar lick and Linda Ronstadtsy chorus).
Reunited with producer Bill Bottrell (who worked on Crow’s first two albums), Crow warms over stylistic elements on Detours that are by now familiar: Love is Free has a vaguely Caribbean bounce with a Beatlesy vocal breakdown bridge, Gasoline is built around a Stonesy R&B vamp (think the Stones’ cover of Harlem Shuffle), Peace Be Upon Us built on a handclaps-and-guitar-arpeggio groove could have come right off Tuesday Night Music Club. And there are other touchstone boomer sounds too, most notably those that recall solo John Lennon (the chorus of Out of Our Heads sounds like something from Toronto-era John & Yoko, Make it Go Away–the album’s breast cancer survivor song–has a raspy, Plastic Ono Band out chorus).
But the record’s best pieces have a freshness too. Gasoline is a futuristic sci-fi story song that tells the tale of the gasoline riots of 2017. Peace Be Upon Us features Crow harmonizing in Arabic with Bahraini singer Ahmed Al Harmi. And the record’s best song, Diamond Ring–a song about the break up of her engagement to cyclist Lance Armstrong–superficially recalls early 1960s girl group ballads (think the Chantels’ Maybe) but subversively undermines expectations, turning the wedding dream into a nightmare (I blew up our love nest/by making one little request/Diamond ring).
I suspect that there’s nothing on Detours to convert the unconverted, but there’s plenty of terrific, listenable music her for its creator to be proud of.
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February 24, 2008 at 4:39 pm
[...] Jason Chervokas on NewCritics really likes Sheryl Crow’s new album, Detours. But: Sheryl Crow’s music is the sound ...