Sheryl Crow - Evolution

by Zena Grieg

published: 4 / 5 / 2024

Label: Big Machine
Format: CD

Vibrant and exhilarating twelfth album from Sheryl Crow, which proves unexpected as in 2019 she announced that she would not bring out any more albums

Review

'Evolution', the latest album by multi Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow was unexpected, following her announcement after her last release in 2019, ‘Threads’, an impressive selection of duets with Stevie Nicks, Keith Richards, Mavis Staples and others, that she would not bring out any more albums. However, just months after being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, her twelfth studio album, 'Evolution' has appeared. The new record was born of a number of individual songs sent to her producer Mike Elizondo, leading them both to the conclusion that a new album had to be made. The 62-year old musician, a cancer and brain tumour survivor, believes all music should come from the soul and that is the spirit which infuses ‘Evolution’, a vibrant mix of tender country-soul, interspersed with upbeat pop songs. Highlights of this ten-track collection include: the quixotic opener and lead single ‘Alarm Clock’ with Crow imagining being served cocktails by a bartender who looks like Hollywood sex symbol Timothee Chalamet, living the high life, before being roused by the early morning buzzer; soulful country-rock ‘Do It Again’, on which Crow plays a Wurlitzer, acoustic guitar and harp; the languid ‘Love Life’, featuring Wendy Melvoin (Prince) on funky guitar; the philosophical ‘You Can’t Change The Weather’ with its uplifting lines: “Every moment has a brand-new start/…Only you can write the story of your life”; the soaring title track; the existential, liberating ‘Where?’ with is poetic lyrics: “Where goes the wave when it hits the shore/What thinks the particle as it’s rushing to the core?/…We will keep dancing through tomorrow/Like lovers spinning in the air”; the moving ballad ‘Don’t Walk Away’; and catchy, effervescent 1960s-style bubblegum pop ‘Broken Record’. Dynamic, exhilarating, ‘Evolution’ comes out ahead of a UK-wide tour starting in June in Halifax.