My favourite female rock act is back, holla!! The quintessence storyteller, the soul country rock act whom may I just add here, accessible to the masses. No one could put so much complexities in emotion packed up in an pop albume like Sheryl Crow.
100 Miles To Memphis is her 7th studio album, Sheryl Crow co-produced together with Doyle Bramhall II and Justin Stanley. Doyle Bramhall II is a solo artist himself who had worked with Eric Clapton. Justin Stanley had worked with The Vines and Beck. This album packs some popular artists like Keith Richards and Justin Timberlake. The most surprising act for me is of course Justin Timberlake, most likely to prop up her star wattage which had been rather low due to the low sales of her last album, Detours. Justin Timberlake presence is not that prominent here as he only provides backup vocal alongside some lady voice. You would not have known him there if his name is not mentioned in the feature title. By the way, he appears in the cover version of Terrence Trent D'arby's 80's hit Sign Your Name.
One thing is clear with this album is that she has lost quite a bit of her raspy voice just like her most recent albums. I think starting from C'mon C'mon, her voice had sound thinner. Still many critics complain about her thinning voice which does not lend credit to her take into the Memphis sound. Starkly the first single, Summer Day is just not her typical single in the chart. No wonder it did not chart in the Hot 100 of billboard.
One stand-out track is perhaps the cover of this indie act from Washington DC, which The Washington Post back in 2002, proclaim him to be the most soulful export since Marvin Gaye, Sideways. Sideways came out in 2006, appear in several tv series soundtrack like Scrubs. Sheryl Crow had an opportunity to express her strong emotion outpouring which is starkly absent in this album.
When I first heard the album I accidentally heard first Jackson 5's I Want You Back. I thought I was mistakenly listening to the wrong album because uncannily the intro sounds almost exactly like the original Jackson 5's sound. I am unsure to why she chose to record this track but it gives a rather whimsical flair to her intention with this album.
Well I am not sure to what extend I should draw my conclusion to this album for I am never the person who could jump right in about an album with just one listen of even one-day listening. I need to really feel this album at the right time and right state, in order to really appreciate it. But overall, judging by just listening in background hush, I love it.
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