One of the more often overlooked elements of Sheryl Crow\u2019s 1993 debut Tuesday Night Music Club<\/i> was her affection for classic soul and rhythm & blues grooves.\u00a0 It\u2019s no coincidence that one of her breakthrough gigs was singing backup for Michael Jackson; she has always been a student of the Motown sound, and her music has frequently been very much about groove.\u00a0 On 100 Miles From Memphis<\/i> she goes back to the source material and adapts the sound for her own, delivering an album of (mostly) originals that sound like they could have been composed under Berry Gordy\u2019s watchful eye circa 1969.<\/p>\n
The highlights are front-loaded here and include the driving, dead-on Motown homage \u201cOur Love Is Fading\u201d (complete with snappy guitar licks, soaring vocals, and sassy horn section), the shimmering light funk of Terence Trent D\u2019Arby\u2019s \u201cSign Your Name,\u201d and the dense, layered-vocals-clavinet-and-blues-harp-featuring \u201cSay What You Want.\u201d\u00a0 Crow also dips into reggae-fied soul in \u201cEye To Eye\u201d (featuring guest guitar by notorious Caribbean nomad Keith Richards), leads with the \u201cna-nas\u201d again on the strings-and-horns confection \u201cSummer Day,\u201d and lifts you up on the shoulders of the sunny \u201cPeaceful Feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s dance in the summer breeze \/ I wanna dance \u2018til my spirit\u2019s free\u201d sings Crow in the latter track, and that one line captures what this album is all about\u2014letting go and having fun with the music.\u00a0 Crow has made some terrific albums and cut some terrific songs, but there hasn\u2019t been that much of it that\u2019s been fun; an awful lot of it has been very serious in one respect or another.\u00a0 And while there are definitely songs here about the mysteries of love, there is precious little angst. The dominant mood on 100 Miles From Memphis<\/i> is upbeat and frothy and a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n
The one oddity about this album is the way Crow dissipates the great head of steam achieved in the first seven tracks by throwing down back to back ballads in \u201cStop\u201d and \u201cSideways,\u201d even if the latter is more of a sultry slow jam duet courtesy of composer \/ guest vocalist Citizen Cope.\u00a0 The title track picks the tempo up again, its lilting verses \u00a0and soulful arrangement providing additional connective tissue between yesterday and today.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Closing things out, \u201cRoses And Moonlight\u201d features a slinky groove with a deep, spacious \u201cLow Rider\u201d feel before Crow comes in on top as breathy and sultry and Diana Ross-ish as she is capable of being. \u201cTurn up the heat, my body\u2019s on fire \/ Come on and teach me the ways of desire\u201d \u2026umm, what was the subject again? Bonus track \u201cI Want You Back\u201d goes straight for this album\u2019s source material and delivers a delicious cover brimming with joy, and dedicated \u201cfor Michael with love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latter cut and the D\u2019Arby and Cope tracks notwithstanding, I love the fact that Crow chose not to make this a covers album. By working with co-producers\/co-writers Doyle Bramhall II (Eric Clapton, B.B.King, Derek Trucks, and Crow\u2019s 2002 album C\u2019mon C\u2019mon<\/i>) and Justin Stanley (The Vines, Nikki Costa) to craft an album of mostly originals, Crow was able to make music that is genuine and true to herself within a deeply familiar late 60s \/ early 70s soul \/ r&b framework. 100 Miles From Memphis<\/i> is all groove and enthusiasm, and tons of fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5966],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42213","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sheryl-crow","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42213","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42213"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}