SHERYL CROW'S new album will 'PICK YOU UP'

A Crow Left Of The Disorder

By TIM DAVID HARVEY 

A change would do the world some good right about now, but until then, how about a new album from legendary American singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow to 'Pick You Up'? Like Norah Jones off the floor. The 'If It Makes You Happy' singer giving us her first since the 'Revolution' of 2024. "All I wanna do, is have some fun", the golden era 90s star once sang, alongside soaking up the sun and singing 007 themes for James Bond's Pierce Brosnan era 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. But Missouri's own musical mainstay, with a favourite mistake, still knows that every day is a winding road. And whilst we all get a little bit closer to that land of the free that was promised to us again, Crow's compelling, trademark and true inspired idealism and outstanding optimism carries us over like the country strong star's blend of blues, rock, folk and pop.

Strong enough on this seventh seal tracking thirteenth studio album that's lucky for us, Sheryl urges us to get onboard the 'Freedom Bus' with former Dead Indian and Cosmic-American frontman Jesse Wells. The single, and the all-encompassing, great American video wonders in protest, "What if everyone took a civics class?/I'm not sure I know anyone who'd pass/But how wе live today comes from the past/If wе forget, it could slip from our grasp/Whatever happened to the Golden Rule/Whoever wrote it wasn't just a fool/We watch the thread unravel from the spool/When you preach love but you still act so cruel." Imprinting her own Big Green Barn productions, with Thirty Tigers providing the distribution, this twenty-five-minute album, running through with the spearheaded second single of a 'Freight Train', brings an art artwork or animals that Noah would be moved by, two-by-two.

Co-wrote with calendar by calendar, constant collaborator Jeff Trott (Counting Crows, Jason Mraz, Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty), this album, and its powerful and propelling title-track honours the album artwork of Tyson Grumm's painting 'The Elephant Who Forgot The Ocean', one brought by Crow at auction, addressing America's elephant in the room, and the watching world also at war and woe. Originally meant to be an EP, until a trip on the 'Freedom Bus' was deemed a necessity with the current state of the world, 'Pick You Up' is highlighted by the picks on 'Perfect' and 'I've Got Your Number'. Reflecting fellow blues legend Seasick Steve's 'Last Season Of America' from a few weeks back, any 'Flat Earth' believers may feel uncomfortable on a track that makes you "feel like staying in bed/Pull up the covers and watch an old movie instead." Yet it's 'Heaven Help Us' that may strike the deepest chord, like Kravitz's, telling us "It's so hard to believe/That from a burn out tree/A flower draws a bee/And life will keep on living/With every broken heart/Where all is torn apart/You get a brand-new start/But not without forgiving." This fall we have a chance to pick. The only way is up.

Playlist Picks: 'Pick You Up', 'Heaven Help Us', 'Freedom Bus (Feat. Jesse Welles)'.

Spin This: Seasick Steve - 'The Last Season Of American'.