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Sheryl Crow: the young and carefree budding country-rocker of "All I Wanna Do", the sweet girl of "Strong Enough", the splendid performer of "The First Cut Is The Deepest", the sexy and sunny woman of "Soak Up The Sun", the stunning sui generis femme fatale of "My Favorite Mistake"; simply Sheryl Crow, a pure talent, a treasure of American music and beyond, my favorite singer who, after defeating breast cancer, returned to the scene in 2008 with "Detours", the sixth album of her splendid career: a special album, where the songs follow one another without pauses, between social and personal themes, grit and sweetness, sharp rock, simple and catchy country melodies, evocative folk harmonies, and bursts of compelling pop.
The glue that binds all the facets of the kaleidoscope of "Detours" is certainly the voice of Sheryl Crow, who once again proves to be a unique and personal interpreter in her genre, capable of a rare tonal and stylistic variety, choosing as her first single the pressing folk rock, with a distinctly polemical approach, in a tone almost declamatory and anything but enjoyable for a distracted ear, of "Shine Over Babylon", which in "Gasoline" speaks without mincing words about a complex and articulated theme such as the dependence on oil with a text of great irony and intelligence, against the backdrop of a sharp blues rock and in "God Bless This Mess" sings about the difficult situation of her country, the United States of America, in two wonderful minutes of guitar & voice filled with bitter and disillusioned sweetness.
But "Detours" is an album distinctly autobiographical as well as protest, Sheryl tells her story in the first person among the notes of these songs, with the liberating "Now That You're Gone" and "Love Is All There Is", characterized by catchy choruses in purely Crowian style, light and bittersweet folk ballads like "Detours" and "Drunk With The Thought Of You" or intense and painful, almost harsh like "Diamond Ring" and "Make It All Go Away (Radiation Song)" and especially "Lullaby For Wyatt", an emotional and poignant dedication to her adopted son. As in every Sheryl album, even in this one, there is no lack of more catchy and informal songs such as "Peace Be Upon Us", steeped in fascinating Middle Eastern harmonies, and the carefree country pop of the compelling "Out Of Our Heads" and the sunny "Love Is Free".
"Detours" is an album that doesn't let itself be appreciated immediately but grows with each listen; with its stylistic variety, it represents yet another proof of the talent and personality of this great singer who, around here, is crudely ignored or at best remembered as "the one who was with Lance Armstrong", who, if she wanted, could "prostitute" herself to the more vulgar standards of MTV and sell an impressively larger number of records compared to her still remarkable success but has never done so and never will; even in the future, she will continue to give us gems like "Detours" for the simple fact that she is Sheryl Crow, a true woman, a true artist, unique in her genre.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Shine Over Babylon (04:02)
I walked the heat of seven hills
Endless talk of losing wills
Great highways in a constant melt
Men and women and children all have overbuilt
Buying bread and paying for none
Creatures of a waning sun
Teacher's hands are overrun
Clowns and gypsies have all but gone
You make me wanna
Shine over Babylon
You make me wanna
Shine over Babylon
Freedoms etched on Sacred pillars
Hollow stones of mindless filler
Can lead to madman oil drillers
Won't be long before we all are killers
Little boy lost way up the mountains
Cities drowning under boiling fountains
I dreamed of chilly, sunlit days
I was trembling in a golden haze
You make me wanna
Shine over Babylon
You make me wanna
Shine over Babylon
Celebrate the golden cow
Praise the bloated bank account
If there's a god where is he now
The precipice is slipping further out
Sanskrit message from the mounts
Leave your possession, hope abounds
There's nothing here for you to cry about
We're all just followers from here on out
I take the stage, I walk the planks
I sing these songs with little thanks
I wait for shouts from crazy cranks
I stand amidst the brown shirt ranks
I found my way to alexandria
Where gurus bubble up on gangea
Scavengers, they run up and hand ya
All the junk that should have damned ya
You make me wanna
Shine over Babylon
You make me wanna
Shine over Babylon
If everything in life was free
You'd float in your own reverie
The things that you could never see
seal the gap between you and me
You make me wanna
Shine over Babylon
You make me wanna
Shine over Babylon
04 Peace Be Upon Us (04:22)
Walking down the street of dreams
Eating from the fruits of life
Tripping out on the smallest things
Trying to reach the light, trying to reach the light
Pick the key up off the floor
Put the key into the lock
Turn the lock, open up the door
Look at all you've got, look at all you've got
All the sinners and saints
All you creatures of faith
Don't need to be afraid
If you know what I mean
Let me hear you say
Peace be upon us,
Peace be upon us,
Be upon us all
Peace be upon us,
Peace be upon us,
Be upon us all
If we speak in tongues of love
But we kill in the name of God
How can we profess to own his name
And still be so lost and still be so lost
The world will turn even when we're gone
The earth will host many souls to come
Who will write the history, tales of
Wisemen, villains and innocent ones
All you shepherds and sheep
When you wake from your sleep
It will be a new day
If you know what I mean
Let me hear you say
Peace be upon us,
Peace be upon us,
Be upon us all
Peace be upon us,
Peace be upon us,
Be upon us all
As-salaamu alykum
Wa-alaykum assalaam
Assalaam alykum
Wa-alaykum assalaam
(The meek shall inherit the earth
Peace be upon us,
Peace be upon us,
Be upon us all
As-salaamu alykum
Wa-alaykum assalaam
Assalaam alykum
Wa-alaykum assalaam
Peace be upon us,
Peace be upon us,
Be upon us all
06 Out of Our Heads (04:27)
If you feel you wanna fight me
there's a chain around your mind
When something is holding you tightly
what is real so hard to find
losing babies to genocide
oh where's the meaning in that plight
can't you see that we've really bought into
every word they proclaimed and every lie, oh every lie
if we could only get out of our heads, out of our heads
and into our hearts
if we could only get out of our heads, out of our heads
and into our hearts
someone's feeding on your anger
someone's been whispering in your ear
you've seen his face before
you've been this place before
these aren't the words you need to hear
cause when the dawn of darkness breaks
and you have blood upon your hands
all the world will treat you kindly
but only the heart can understand, oh understand
if we could only get out of our heads, out of our heads
and into our hearts
if we could only get out of our heads, out of our heads
and into our hearts
if we could only get out of our heads, out of our heads
and into our hearts
children of Abraham lay down your fears, swallow
your tears and into your heart
every man is his own prophet
oh every prophet just a man
I say all the women stand up, say yes to themselves
Love your children best you can
Let every man bow to the best in himself
We're not killing any more
We're the wisest ones, everybody listen
Cause you can't fight this feeling any more, oh anymore
if we could only get out of our heads, out of our heads
and into our hearts
if we could only get out of our heads, out of our heads
and into our hearts
if we could only get out of our heads, out of our heads
and into our hearts
children of Abraham lay down your fears, swallow
your tears and into your heart
07 Detours (03:28)
Mother, can you hold me together
It's so dark and I'm losing my way
I took all of these detours to find love
But when I did, it just faded away
Now what do I do
With the sweet love of mine
Do I give it away and
Hope someday I'll find
Someone half as awake
As the moon and the stars
Mother, teach me to love
With a paper-thin heart
Mother, your words are so healing
You speak of love and of light and of peace
But I've made it my course to avoid you
Just to hide from these feelings of grief
Now what do I do
With the sweet love of mine
Do I give it away and
Hope someday I'll find
Someone half as awake
As the moon and the stars
Mother, teach me to love
With a paper-thin heart
Now what do I do
With the sweet love of mine
Do I give it away and
Hope someday I'll find
Someone half as awake
As the moon and the stars
Mother, teach me to love
With a paper-thin heart
Mother, I know you are with me
You were there when I took my first breath
I can't stop looking back for the answers
I just keep coming up with regret
There are some things I just can't forget
09 Drunk With the Thought of You (02:38)
1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3 go
There's something I need to show you
Head in my hands
'Cause I don't understand
When I don't even know you
How you've melted my heart in two
I wake up in the morning
Follow you and then hide
Just to watch you walk by
Comes on me with no warning
I think about you and I get high
Do I show you I even exist
Do I tell you it's you that I've missed
Well if love is a cocktail of all that you do
I get drunk with the thought of you
I get drunk with the thought of you
I can't stand all this freedom
I've been here before
And it's such a big bore
You're all I ever needed
If only you'd walk through my door
Do I show you I even exist
Do I tell you it's you that I've missed
Well if love is a cocktail of all that you do
I get drunk with the thought of you
I get drunk with the thought of you
I could wait my whole life for this moment to come
With a long list of beautiful chances I've blown
Well, this time I'll toast to your name 'til I'm blue
I get drunk with the thought of you
I get drunk with the thought of you
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