Album Review: Sheryl Crow – Pick You Up
For anyone who spent time around in the 90s, Sheryl Crow is an artist whose songs became part of the furniture — from the laid-back swagger of debut release All I Wanna Do to the more reflective side of Strong Enough. Three decades on, Crow is still finding ways to marry her country-rock roots with observations of the world around her. Pick You Up, released via Old Green Barn, is her 12th studio album, and is co-written with long-time collaborator Jeff Trott., with an easy-going musical backdrop, bigger questions about connection, freedom, the environment and a divided world begged to be raised. At this stage in her career, Crow has little left to prove — but clearly still plenty she wants to get off her chest. But is it a free in depth therapy session, or a nonsensical and incoherent rant?? Let’s find out….
Sliding in with Freight Train, we begin with the more country roots version of Crow (my favourite), with a down tempo laid back tempo to this classic country musical set up, and with Sheryl’s almost sombre delivery, the result is a very easy listening track. Perfect up next, which felt more like it came straight from her self-titled album in the late 1990’s (which is apt as the first ten seconds I thought she’d lifted the exact instrumental tones from Radiohead’s Karma Police… though that feeling didn’t last long) – a slow slightly grunge rock track which I am a fan of, and then we switch back to country roots for the title track Pick You Up – slightly more mid-tempo that the opener, but the vocal harmonies definitely has both feet firmly rooted in Nashville.
Flat Earth has fantastic harmonies, feeling like it’s deeply influenced by Neil Young, the Eagles and all the other leviathans from the 1970’s – a really beautifully constructed track, and definitely my favourite on the album. I’ve Got Your Number has that classic early Sheryl Crow sound to it, where a few home truths seem to be aired through the lyrics, while penultimate track Heaven Help Us uses some violins to create musical depth in a track which sounds quite unique for Crow, but similarly very familiar. We round off with Freedom Bus – featuring Jesse Welles, this track is the second that wouldn’t be out of place on her self-titled album, with the distortion on the bass and lead electric guitars, with a slight hat tip to country in the undertone of the track, but definitely more than a hint of Bluesy Rock.
There’s a distinctly 70s California-country feel to Pick You Up and this is a good thing. Crow has clearly stayed in her lane and created a listenable, easily consumable (it’s not 30 minutes long) album with a strong set of tracks which very much sit in the genres of her first two albums and her roots – and as a result we are left with an album that fans will love to listen to… and at this stage of her career that’s exactly what you should be doing – you’re not going to tempt in new listeners with new releases, are you!?!
