List Price: £11.99 Price: £8.98 You save: £3.01 (25%)
Media: Audio CD Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Editorial Review:
Thematically, Detours may not seem like much of a detour to Sheryl Crow fans. Her politics pour out of these songs the way you might expect them to if you caught wind of her epic cross-country bus trip, with the activist Laurie David, to promote environmental awareness months prior to this release. From the quiet, faraway-sounding opener "God Bless This Mess"--a novel in a song--to the catchy but thought-provoking "Gasoline", it's clear that Crow has more on her mind these days than soaking up the sun or having a little fun, à la the Tuesday Night Music Club era. Yet there's not a groan-worthy song on this standout rock/pop/folk/blues album. If the themes are heavy (in addition to the political songs, there's an almost painfully tender lullaby for her son Wyatt and one, "Make It Go Away [Radiation Song]," that touches on her breast-cancer experience), the mood is cathartic, determined, hopeful at times and sad at others. "Now That You're Gone" grabs at clarity through the clouds of a devastating love affair and gets it, and "Peace Be Upon Us" picks apart pettiness and arrives at a wide-minded beauty. George Harrison seems present in some of these songs, especially the more personal ones ("Drunk with the Thought of You," "Love Is All There Is"). And that may be the highest compliment that Sheryl Crow, who seems to admire his gentle soul and shares his big heart, could ask for. --Tammy La Gorce
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
not back to her best,but back on track. In short if your looking for the dark,grainy guitar led songs that she wrote up as far as the brilliant "Globe Sessions" you'll be disappointed.On the other hand she's returnded to a more earthy sound,with a bit of a hippy commune vibe.
Personally I'm just glad she's got away from that over produced bubble gum pop-rock commercial rubbish of "c'mon c'mon".
Much Better This album signals a return to form for Sheryl Crow after her disappointing 'Wildflower' album. It is largely reminiscent of the hippy style of her first two albums, but musical times have moved on since then and so I doubt it will be as successful. It does suffer from a number of flaws - sometimes a bit over political, sometimes a bit over personal - she gets away with it unless the music isn't up to scratch. This is the case with the lo-fi and thankfully short opener 'God Bless This Mess', the simply... more info
Bill Bottrell, you made my day It can't be a coincidence that Bill Bottrell produced Sheryl Crow's first two albums ('Tuesday Night Music Club' and 'Sheryl Crow'), and he also produced these most recent 'Detours'. The reason I say it's not coincidental is that these three albums are stand-out bests of her work, with 'The Globe Sessions' following a close second, but with 'C'mon C'mon' and 'Wildflower' trailing distantly behind, lagging in the land of overarrangement and self-indulgence. 'Detours' is fresh, with exciting sounds,... more info
Her Best In A Decade...however much that says At what point do you stop becoming a "fan" of an artist? For a brief moment around 1997/98 Sheryl Crow was my favourite artist. So you would think that with her first three albums ranging from excellent to merely rather good I would be a fan for life. But then we have two really rather poor albums (plus a totally perfunctory Live album that was the absolute pits) and as I go to buy Detours I find myself tussling with the question of whether I am a fan of Crow anymore, or mererly a curious bystander... more info
