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 Crow Takes Sidetrips On the Road of Life February 6, 2008
Rudy Palma (NJ)
49 out of 57 found this review helpful
If 2002's sun-drenched "Come On, Come On" found a nail-biting Sheryl Crow unsure of her position as pop tunesmith or serious singer/songwriter, 2005's "Wildflower" - her "art" record as she dubbed it - certified she could straddle the line without compromise.
She continues that progression with the aptly-titled "Detours," sifting through a myriad of topics like her breast cancer battle, broken engagement to Lance Armstrong and adoption of a baby boy. She may have been sidetracked, but she embraces the rhythm of life, an artist true to form.
Crow reunites with Bill Bottrell, producer of her 1993 debut "Tuesday Night Music Club," and the results are compelling and thoroughly listenable. Lo-fi opener "God Bless This Mess" is wall-to-wall Crow, reiterating the song's title line despite hazy post 9/11 life, while the jaunty radio-ready rock of the futuristic blue-collar anthem "Gasoline" and bouncy single "Love Is Free" keep the pace.
She bares her soul on "Make It Go Away (Radiation Song)" and delivers a high-octane rocker in the politically conscious "Shine Over Babylon," but the revelatory title track and cheery, swashbuckling "Out of Our Heads" keep the colors from running too dark.
In spite of life's hardships she finds comfort in "Peace Be Upon Us" and the gorgeous "Love Is All There Is" without a trace of sap left on her fingers, while perfect closer "Lullaby For Wyatt" finds Crow fully aware of the trials of motherhood as she tenderly croons "you're mine...for a time."
Crow is a rare flower of a talent in an entertainment industry full of weeds and flash-in-the-pans, but she is not fragile. Transforming the personal into the universal, she has the rare power to make listeners consider not just themselves but the ambiguous world they live in and keep things entertaining and fresh all the while.
 It's Always Tuesday Night Somewhere February 10, 2008
J. Chasin (NYC, NY)
28 out of 32 found this review helpful
In late 1993 I went to see the BoDeans at New York's Irving Plaza. The opening act was a singer-songwriter I'd never heard of before, a tall skinny pretty brunette who wore a denim shirt and played rhythm guitar in front of a loose, easy band. I enjoyed Sheryl Crow's opening set so much that night that I went out the next day and bought her record that had just come out, Tuesday Night Music Club (to place this in context, "All I Wanna Do" was all over the radio the following summer.)
She was great, an artist fully formed, and Tuesday Night Music Club is one of those records that manages to capture magic like lightning in a bottle. As much as I like her, it remains her best record.
The Music Club scattered, Sheryl has gone on to have an impressive run of hits (especially in this day and age, when old fashioned Stones/Clapton/Neil Young, 70s-inspired rock'n'roll has fallen so far from fashion. But here, she reunites with Music Clubber Bill Bottrell, who produced, mixed, and engineered, and shares writing credits on 5 of the songs. But let's not get crazy parsing out who does what; Detours has the loose, easy vibe that TNMC had, the feel of music made without any sweat, just flowing naturally. I don't know if there are any hits here and I don't really care. Start to finish, it is her best, most cohesive, easiest-to-listen-to record since the first one.
One thing worth noting is that it sounds great. I liked her last one, Wild Flowers, but the production was a little off for my ears, a little muddled. This sounds clear and bright.
I'm going to guess that some people will criticize the lyrics on some songs; "Gasoline," for example, gets a little political. But not to worry; just do what I do, and don't pay too much attention to the lyrics. Just feel the music, hear the songs, let it seep in and win you over. This one is just spot on.
Amazing~~~ February 7, 2008
Boy (NYC)
22 out of 28 found this review helpful
I have to say that I was a bit hesitant to buy Sheryl Crow's new record at first because I just wasn't feeling her last 2 records to be honest. Too sunshiney for me. But before those, I've always enjoyed her music on and off.
I saw Detours for the sale price of $8 and thought the titles of the songs looked interesting. So I bought it. Plus I heard she's been having some major issues in her life lately and I basically had the impression that she'd talk about all that in her new record. She did and I'm glad for that. I'm glad she dove deep! This is a personal political record and those can be tricky. They can either succeed or fail miserably. I believe Sheryl has succeeded with Detours.
It's a mixture of her old self a la Tuesday Night Music Club with a newer self in a way with a more intimate touch.
Highlights of the record for me are: God bless this mess, shine over babylon, Gasoline, make it go away (radiation song), and Diamond ring.
Worth checking out! She's the female Bob Dylan of our times.
Cathartic!! February 5, 2008
Nse Ette (Lagos, Nigeria)
14 out of 21 found this review helpful
"Detours" is Sheryl Crow's sixth studio album. It seems an age since Ms Crow burst onto the music scene with her multi platinum Grammy winning debut "Tuesday night music club" when all she wanted to do was "have some fun" or "soak up the sun". The Ms Crow of 2008 is very environmentally and politically aware, as well as a mother to a young son and lyrically, it shows. However deep she gets, she's still got the knack for writing simple, catchy blues/folk/rock songs.
The album got it's title from the "Detours" Ms Crow's life has taken since her public break up, cancer fight, and adopting a son.
Musically, it's still edgy rock; she's teamed up again with Bill Bottrell (who besides producing her debut has also worked with Michael Jackson). Opening is the distant sounding acoustic folk of "God bless this mess", which leads into the rockier "Shine over Babylon" (nice harmonies). This was an airplay only lead-off single.
Lead-off single proper is "Love is free" which is a sparse but joyful sounding sing-a-long. "Peace be upon us" (with a slight Eastern influence from featured Iranian folk artist Mitra Rahbar) is a gently bluesy number with lyrics like "the world will turn even when we're gone". More upbeat is the, cheery bluesy "Gasoline" (with semi spoken lyrics a la "All I wanna do" telling a futuristic tale about the energy crisis), while "Out of our heads" takes a look at the state of the world with lightly thumping beats and a hippy sounding chorus.
Title track "Detours" is another acoustic folk number with gentle beats, and similar is "Drunk with the thought of you". "Now that you're gone" is a soulful bluesy song (with lyrics expressing joy at the end of a relationship; one of my favourites), while "Diamond ring" is a slowed down retro rocker with raspy fiery vocals (I love it!!). Bringing in a country element is "Motivation". Getting rather cathartic is the tender acoustic "Make it go away (radiation song)" about her bout with breast cancer and it's quite nice, done in a "mommy make the monsters go" style.
Upping the tempo a bit with harder beats is the sunny "Love is all there is", and closing the album is the gentle "Lullaby for Wyatt" which is for her son. "The world could fall apart, but you're my heart my dear" she sings softly in a crystal clear voice to a soft acoustic/violin backdrop. Lovely!
This is such a wonderful collection, nothing lets down the album. The Japanese version has 2 nice bonus tracks; "Rise up" and "Beautiful dream".
 A Little Lame but February 6, 2008
Lady Prudence (New York)
12 out of 25 found this review helpful
The best songs on the album are the personal ones - the title track is reflective though the sing-song "ma ma ma" chorus is annoying; "Make it Go Away" is haunting - a scarier scenario than Sheryl's other disease song from C'Mon C'Mon, "Weather Channel."
The political songs are just cliched, lame and boring. Political songs are always hard to swallow when they're sung by millionaires doing Revlon commercials. Springsteen, Lennon, Dylan, Guthrie are masters of the genre. Sheryl's, however, are not very thoughtful, nothing you haven't read in some left-wing blog somewhere. There is the obligatory Bush-bashing, blaming him for just about everything that's gone wrong in the world including "a war based on lies" (yet she has never called her beloved Bill Clinton a "liar" for saying the same things in 1998 that Dubya said -- a little ideological myopia, huh, Sheryl?); there are the pleas for peace from the "children of Abraham" in "Out of Our Heads," a song aimed straight at the Sesame Street crowd (though the "don't think...feel" message is anti-intellectual and anti-education). Sheryl is best when telling stories like "Gasoline" (with yet another Rolling Stones riff). With "Love is Free" Sheryl gives the impression tha those poor, wretched, displaced, hungry, tired, victims of Hurrican Katrina spent their days "making love 'cause love is free" (having sex all day adn drinking Bourbon?). It seems that the writer of "Love is a Good Thing" from her self-titled 1996 album is now reminding again not only is love is free, love is all there is. Love, Love, Love and Peace, man.
The histrionics of "Diamond Ring" is as convulted as her message.
I find the song "Motivation" the most interesting one here; it's a description of spoiled, young, reality-tv watchers right out of "My Super Sweet 16." "Shine over Babylon" wants to be Dylanesque but the sanctimonious platitudes and the moronic chorus "you make me wanna shine over Babylon" (huh?) doesn't cut it. She claims she sings the songs with "little thanks" and has to deal with brownshirts, blah, blah -- to hear her sing you'd think she's living in Stalinist Russia and that Bush is right now losing sleep trying to censor her songs. Yawn.
Like most of Sheryl's music, it's all retro, with a little bit of George Harrison here, Bob Dylan there, Roliing Stones here and there. There is basically nothing new in this album that wasn't already heard at Woodstock 1969. Sheryl's voice is in tip top form, however. But if you want insight into America 2008, get the real thing, get Dylan's "Modern Times."
Best cut: the heart-wrenching Lullabye for Wyatt. Download that one and "Detours"
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