Exercise the Demons (Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow)

Member Name: The Solid Grey

Product:	Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow
Date:	11/09/01 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Really good album , full of great songs.

Disadvantages: none

To this day Sheryl Crow by Sheryl Crow, remains one of my favourite albums, it has the music I like most, it has really good songs, its by someone who writes their own songs and plays their own music, and the lyrics in music itself is about real things or situations, the music’s good, you can sing along, and so its pretty much everything I like in music.

This album also has the distinction of being one of two albums that I have sat (or rather lay) down, in the dark with headphones on, listening to, admittedly at the time I was going through a rough patch (depression and such), but it really ‘exercised the demons’, but besides that its a really good listen. And because your dying to know the other album is its Roger Taylor’s ‘Happiness’.

Background
Sheryl Crow used to be a session musician, and I gather that on Tuesday nights they would sit around and jam, the results of this became her first album ‘Tuesday Night Music Club’, and looking at the credits on that album you can see that a number of people were involved, the album came out sometime in 1993, and the most famous single release from this album was/is ‘All I Wanna Do.....’, in fact I remember my sister calling me to listen to the song to tell her what she was singing in the song (I got it, so it must be my sisters bad hearing).

At the time I wasn’t interested in Sheryl’s music (or any music really), it was the single ‘If It Makes You Happy’ from her second album (the imaginatively titled, ‘Sheryl Crow’) when I actually took notice, I went into my local MVC, and they played the album for me to listen to on one of the stands, and I ended up buying it.

She has also released a third album ‘The Globe Sessions’, a live album, ‘Sheryl Crow And Friends Live From Central Park’, two videos ‘Live From London’ and ‘Rockin’ The Globe’,
which is also available on DVD, she also did the title song for the James Bond film ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’.

Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow, The Album
Most of the songs are written by Sheryl Crow, other major writing credits go to Jeff Trot, Brian MacLeod and Bill Botrell (Bill Botrell, famous for working with Michael Jackson, recording/mixing and writing, particularly the rap lyrics on ‘Black Or White’), it was produced by Sheryl Crow and was released in 1996. The cover and inlay card have the lyrics printed and a couple of photo’s of the woman herself.

The style and feel of the album is one of hope/misery/difficulties and the trials of real life, quite a contrast to the care free feel of her first album, its also a lot more of a rock album then the first.

Track Listing

1. Maybe Angels
2. A Change
3. Home
4. Sweet Rosalyn
5. If It Makes You Happy
6. Redemption Day
7. Hard To Make A Stand
8. Every Day Is A Winding Road
9. Love Is A Good Thing
10. Marie
11. Superstar
12. The Book
13. Ordinary Morning
14. Freeman

A nice number of songs, four of the tracks were released as singles these were, ‘If It Makes You Happy’, ‘A Change’, ‘Every Day Is A Winding Road’ and ‘Hard To Make A Stand’.

I won’t go into detail on every song because that’s what the album is for, but the songs that stand out are,

If It Makes You Happy
Well its why I bought the album, its about a relationship that’s not quite working because she’s not perfect and neither is he, ‘If it makes you happy it can’t be that bad, If it makes you happy, then why the hell are you so sad..........’ not a happy song but very good, with the lyrics and vocals having a lot of feeling in them.

Maybe Angels
The first song, and similar in style to ‘If It Makes You Happy&#
8217;, its about the fact that life isn’t what its made out to be, and about not knowing what to do with your (her) life, ‘I’ve got a hundreds stories of tabloid lies, I’ve got witnesses to what the government denies......’.

Every Day Is A Winding Road
An upbeat/happier song, about life again, everyday is different and you don’t know what to expect, good or bad, ‘Everybody gets high, everybody gets low, these are the days were anything goes......’.

Redemption Day
A sad-ish song and quieter than the rest, about world leaders never doing the right thing and only in it for what they can get, ‘No riches in trade for the fate, of every person who died in hate, throw us a bone, you men of great, there’s a train that’s heading straight to heavens gate, to heavens gate’.

A fantastic album, well presented, produced, written, played and sang, darker than the other two albums, but just as great if not better.

The Solid Grey

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