There was some kind of elaborate marketing scheme involved in
\nthe ticketing of this show… some complicated trick with American
\nExpress people walking around New York and dispensing tickets in an
\n“instant lottery-type fashion.” Color me cynical, but this sounds
\nvery Sheryl Crow to me. I have a theory that you can tell if a
\nperson is an industry creation or not by the number of Grammys they
\nhave. (Okay, they’re probably not that organized, but there is
\nstill a weird pack rat mentality going on during voting.) I mean,
\nSting has the same number of Grammys as Aretha Franklin… what is
\nthat?<\/p>\n
This pop critic has always been skeptical of Sheryl Crow, who
\neven from her first album in 1993 was played to death on Z100. Just
\nhow many singles did
\nTuesday Night Music Club<\/i> have? That album was a pretty good
\ndeal; you bought it once and you felt cool for a long time because
\nthere were so many songs from it being played on the air. It was
\nthe alt-rock era and while nobody then or now would call Sheryl
\nCrow alternative rock, the album sounded like rock without sounding
\nlike the Beatles or Springsteen or Def Leppard, which made it…
\nuh, softcore alternative rock? Suburbanites flocked into record
\nstores to get into the “cool alternative rock thing” and they found
\nSheryl Crow, sufficiently inoffensive and pop enough in sound, and
\nwere vindicated by radio’s incessant promotion of it (who
\nthemselves were desperate to be cool — it secures advertising —
\nbut did not want to hemorrhage pop listeners). Her image was
\nalternative and her sound was pop, the perfect conceptual
\ncombination in a climate where alt-pop quasi-hybrids like Alanis
\nMorrissette became Instant God. Evanescence missed their ideal
\nzeitgeist by a decade.<\/p>\n
Sheryl Crow has since gone overboard trying to prove just how
\nrock she is, but who is she fooling (besides millions of casual
\nrock fans); she was on
\nOprah<\/i> recently. Just what kind of a rocker goes on
\nOprah<\/i>, singing a torch song to her man, no less? Rock
\ncritics, however, are quick to defend her, especially after her
\nadmittedly rockin’ sophomore release and hey, I’m no rock critic,
\nso maybe you’re getting things I don’t get. But I still hold by the
\ntheory that Sheryl Crow is a large, elaborate pop music hoax, a
\nkind of Francine Prose of rock, who has released several
\n“successful” works but not a single one that The Masses
\nremember.<\/p>\n
And I’ve written three paragraphs already without even once
\nmentioning Kevin Gilbert.<\/p>\n
The concert for
\nLive From Central Park<\/i> was held after the release of
\nThe Globe Sessions<\/i>, but out of fourteen songs, only four are
\nfrom that album. This is not a testament to the incredibly
\ndepressing soundtrack to
\nThe Bell Jar: the Musical<\/i> that is
\nThe Globe Sessions<\/i>, but is a result of the format of this
\nvery specific concert where Crow duets with big names such as
\nChrissie Hynde (apparently Hynde finally found a female musician
\nshe didn’t feel catty about), Eric Clapton, Sarah McLachlan, the
\nDixie Chicks, Stevie Nicks, Keith Richards… am I leaving anyone
\nout? You get the picture. Nicks has said in an interview that if
\nyou want to work with anyone in the business, it’s a cinch to know
\nCrow first because she knows everybody.<\/p>\n
Despite this incredible lineup, almost every collaboration in
\nthis concert bombs. Hynde’s contribution to “If It Makes You Happy”
\nis gratuitous; why is she even in this song? one asks. She doesn’t
\nreally bring anything new to it besides ooh ooh it’s Chrissie Hynde
\nand sorry, celebrity is not enough for rock. The original version
\nwith Crow sounding like Godzilla being dragged out of bed is so
\nmuch better. Eric Clapton sounds flat-out tired, going through the
\nmotions with a forgettable cover of Cream’s “White Room.” “The
\nDifficult Kind” is a waste of Sarah McLachlan, who harmonizes just
\nto have something to do and plays an instrument I can’t hear.
\nBecause we all know McLachlan became famous for her mean
\nkeyboarding.<\/p>\n
The Dixie Chicks bring a fun country twist to “Strong Enough”
\nbut of course, the song was really country to begin with. At least
\nit’s a new twist on an old song, which should be the point of any
\ncollaboration outside of classical music. And Stevie Nicks stuns
\nwith one of the best live versions of “Gold Dust Woman” I’ve heard
\nyet… but I can’t hear Crow at all, and I thought this was her
\nconcert. The finale “Tombstone Blues” where they all take the stage
\nis such a textbook example of It Didn’t Come Together I’ll just
\nspare you. And please spare yourself. Really.<\/p>\n
What works in this album, actually, is Crow’s solo tracks. Crow
\nis reportedly amazing in concert and with tracks like “Leaving Las
\nVegas” featuring a funny pledge of allegiance to rock & roll, I
\nbelieve it. “Everyday is a Winding Road” and “There Goes the
\nNeighborhood” were built for the stage and Crow does not
\ndisappoint; they sound like how they’re supposed to sound like live
\n(need I say more?). It’s not enough to save this album and it
\nwasn’t enough to save Crow for me; this is the last album of hers I
\never bought (although I’ve listened to all of them, on loan).<\/p>\n
Maybe I’m not rock enough. But maybe industry and zeitgeist gets
\nyou only so far, especially in rock & roll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5966],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-38409","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sheryl-crow","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38409"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}