Detours

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Thematically, Detours may not seem like much of a detour to Sheryl Crow fans. Her politics pour out of these songs the way you might expect them to if you caught wind of her epic cross-country bus trip, with the activist Laurie David, to promote environmental awareness months prior to this release. From the quiet, faraway-sounding opener "God Bless This Mess"--a novel in a song--to the catchy but thought-provoking "Gasoline", it's clear that Crow has more on her mind these days than soaking up the sun or having a little fun, à la the Tuesday Night Music Club era. Yet there's not a groan-worthy song on this standout rock/pop/folk/blues album. If the themes are heavy (in addition to the political songs, there's an almost painfully tender lullaby for her son Wyatt and one, "Make It Go Away [Radiation Song]," that touches on her breast-cancer experience), the mood is cathartic, determined, hopeful at times and sad at others. "Now That You're Gone" grabs at clarity through the clouds of a devastating love affair and gets it, and "Peace Be Upon Us" picks apart pettiness and arrives at a wide-minded beauty. George Harrison seems present in some of these songs, especially the more personal ones ("Drunk with the Thought of You," "Love Is All There Is"). And that may be the highest compliment that Sheryl Crow, who seems to admire his gentle soul and shares his big heart, could ask for. --Tammy La Gorce

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-13 rating:
Possibly the best album I have bought this year!
Sheryl Crow returns after an eventful two year break with a happy, inspiring and fun album which echoes some of her most famous songs such as All I Wanna Do, Everyday is a Winding Road and My Favourite Mistake.

Each song tells a different story or has a different message and a lot of it has been influenced by Crow's recent battle with breast cancer (Make It Go Away), the adoption of her son Wyatt (Lullaby for Wyatt) and her break up from that famous cyclist whose name I can't remember.

For anyone who has a decent taste in music or a particular love for guitar then I would highly recommend the album, I'm sure it will be a classic in the years to come and if Sheryl Crow releases more similar records then I'm sure she will have plenty more 'Very Best of' albums to release.

Here's my thoughts on each individual track of the album-
'God Bless This Mess'- A short happy intro to the album with a message about the Iraq war and how appreciative of family we should be
'Shine Over Babylon'- A lively starter, reminded me of 'All I Wanna Do' but it is completely different and not quite as good
'Love Is Free'- A happy tune that will have you smiling and dancing round before the end
'Peace Be Upon Us'- Nice song with, you guessed it, a peace message
'Gasoline'- A really entertaining and funny story about our world's future
'Out of Our Heads'- Far too catchy! If we did use our hearts then we would live in a better place
'Detours'- Asking mother for guidance, you get a personal feel from Sheryl Crow here
'Now That You're Gone'- One of my favourite tracks about the freedom from a close relationship, again it seems a personal one from Crow
'Drunk With The Thought of You'- Nice if you're into very slightly mushy stuff
'Diamond Ring'- Possibly the only song I'm not fond of it's just not great like the others
'Motivation'- Be happy!
'Make It Go Away'- A slightly sad song which echoes Sheryl's battle with cancer
'Love Is All There Is'- Nice, it makes you realise what matters
'Lullaby For Wyatt'- A lovely song about wondering how to parent and eventually let go, unfortunately bringing this fantastic album to an end!

BUY IT!! You'll love it

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review by: date: 2008-04-15 rating:
not back to her best,but back on track.
In short if your looking for the dark,grainy guitar led songs that she wrote up as far as the brilliant "Globe Sessions" you'll be disappointed.On the other hand she's returnded to a more earthy sound,with a bit of a hippy commune vibe.
Personally I'm just glad she's got away from that over produced bubble gum pop-rock commercial rubbish of "c'mon c'mon".

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review by: pain de chèvre date: 2008-03-16 rating:
Much Better
This album signals a return to form for Sheryl Crow after her disappointing 'Wildflower' album. It is largely reminiscent of the hippy style of her first two albums, but musical times have moved on since then and so I doubt it will be as successful.

It does suffer from a number of flaws - sometimes a bit over political, sometimes a bit over personal - she gets away with it unless the music isn't up to scratch. This is the case with the lo-fi and thankfully short opener 'God Bless This Mess', the simply grating 'Diamond Ring', the slightly average 'Drunk With The Thought of You' and the sickly pointless (to me) 'Lullaby To Wyatt'.

The remaining 10 tracks however are very good. The 5 star moments for me are the more commercial ones such as 'Out of Our Heads' (surely this should have been the first single), 'Now That You're Gone' (there is a bit of ELO in here) and 'Motivation'. And surprisingly 'Make It Go Away', related to her own cancer battle, works really well and is a powerful piece which I guess many people will be able to relate to. Everything else gets 4 stars, despite the fact that she at times sounds like just another pop star railing against politicians about global warming, wars etc etc.

Fortunately, where the music is good, I find myself able to let the words wash over me and it becomes a highly enjoyable pop/rock/folk album.

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review by: Jekteir date: 2008-03-10 rating:
Bill Bottrell, you made my day
It can't be a coincidence that Bill Bottrell produced Sheryl Crow's first two albums ('Tuesday Night Music Club' and 'Sheryl Crow'), and he also produced these most recent 'Detours'.

The reason I say it's not coincidental is that these three albums are stand-out bests of her work, with 'The Globe Sessions' following a close second, but with 'C'mon C'mon' and 'Wildflower' trailing distantly behind, lagging in the land of overarrangement and self-indulgence.

'Detours' is fresh, with exciting sounds, bold choices (see: first track), and lyrics which, for a change, work a lot better to music than when you see them on the page. When I first scanned Crow's lyrics (before listening) I was moderately worried about the album, but it makes a refreshing change for the music and production to make the lyrics both make sense and not come across as either a) over-sentimental, b) self-indulgent, or c) overly 'message'-y. Too much 'message' was certainly a risk with this fairly political album, but like all good gospel and soul music (not that that's the genre of this album -- I'm drawing a parallel here), sometimes the sugar makes the medicine go down.

Who knows? -- Maybe by actually producing an album whose _sounds_ people will listen to in wonderment, Crow and Bottrell will, in the background (where it belongs) enable some political impact by happy collision.


review by: date: 2008-03-09 rating:
Her Best In A Decade...however much that says
At what point do you stop becoming a "fan" of an artist? For a brief moment around 1997/98 Sheryl Crow was my favourite artist. So you would think that with her first three albums ranging from excellent to merely rather good I would be a fan for life.

But then we have two really rather poor albums (plus a totally perfunctory Live album that was the absolute pits) and as I go to buy Detours I find myself tussling with the question of whether I am a fan of Crow anymore, or mererly a curious bystander seeing if this time around is going to be better than the last two occasions. The fact I'm even considering the question doesn't bode well.

Thankfully, Detours is her best album in a decade. Granted that's not saying an awful lot, but it's a good place to start. Unfortunately one can't really say that it's up there with her best work.

At least with Bill Bottrell at the helm, Crow is back to doing what she does best after the misguided Wildflowers. Recent single Love Is Free might have been almost universally ignored but its the kind of lilting up-tempo semi-rocker that Crow excels at.

The problem is that the album starts off on a decidedly low-fi note. Now that may be designed to make you listen more carefully to the lyrics on God Bless This Mess, but therein lies another strike against Crow for me.

It takes precisely one minute 50 to sink us to the first "Anti-War, Anti-George Bush" lyrics and immediately my heart sinks. My own personal opinions are irrelevant; I quite simply don't like being preached to by multi-million earning pop stars. Sadly there are more than a few occasions during the album where I'm willing to start loving the tunes, before the lyrics drag me down into despair.

Granted, given what she's gone through over the past few years, Crow is perfectly at liberty to write about she wants to. It doesn't mean that I have to listen to it with any great pleasure. Which is a shame; occasionally Crow strikes the right balance. Love Is Free for instance is a great pop song, only subtly revealing itself as lyrically concerned with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina after a number of listens. Compare this with Gasoline, which to my mind is one of the most cringeworthy songs I've heard in a long time.

I'm quite willing to state it may well be my own personal taste that finds the lyrics a distraction. Many might find them insightful (at least in some parts) and might applaud their sentiments. And I might if I were watching Miss Crow on Question Time. On record, depsite the tunes being up there with her best in quite a few parts, it's all too easy to flip the skip button.

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