Sheryl Crow released self-titled second album

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Crow

Released: September 24, 1996 Peak: 6 US, 5 UK, 12 CN, 14 AU, 14 DF Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.9 UK, 5.0 world (includes US + UK) Genre: rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Maybe Angels (38 DF) A Change Would Do You Good (5/17/97, 19 BB, 9 GR, 12 RR, 5 A40, 16 AA, 25 MR, 8 UK, 2 CN, 74 AU, 10 DF) Home (10/6/97, 25 UK, 40 CN, 12 DF) Sweet Rosalyn (39 DF) If It Makes You Happy (8/31/96, 10 BB, 10 CB, 4 GR, 3 RR, 5 A40, 11 AA, 37 AR, 6 MR, 9 UK, 11 CN, 20 AU, 7 DF) Redemption Day (35 DF) Hard to Make a Stand (3/17/97, 22 UK, 15 CN, 12 DF) Everyday Is a Winding Road (11/8/96, 11 BB, 6 BA, 3 GR, 4 RR, 28 AC, 4 A40 3, AA, 31 AR, 17 MR, 12 UK, 13 CN, 67 AU, 7 DF) Love Is a Good Thing (14 DF) Oh Marie (38 DF) Superstar (39 DF) The Book (36 DF) Ordinary Morning Total Running Time: 56:28

Rating: 4.189 out of 5.00 (average of 17 ratings) Quotable: “Sheryl Crow's self-titled sophomore effort remains her most consistent and distinctly modern album to date.” – Sal Cinquemani, Slant magazine Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About Sheryl Crow Sheryl Crow was born in Kennett, Missouri, in 1962. After she graduated from the University of Missouri, she worked as an elementary school music teacher and would sing in bands on weekends. She started singing jingles and eventually moved to Los Angeles to work as a backup singer. After working as a backup singer for Don Henley, Michael Jackson, and others, Crow signed a deal with A&M records to release her own album. She was disappointed with the slick, contemporary pop sound of the album, wanting a rougher, roots-rock sound and she convinced A&M not to release the album. Then-boyfriend Kevin Gilbert and producer Bill Bottrell tried to salvage it, but eventually aborted it. Still, the association with Gilbert and Bottrell paid off as they brought her into their weekly jam sessions, known as the Tuesday Night Music Club, “that ultimately produced the disc’s rootsy, beer-logged” SL debut album of the same name. She had a falling out with most of the collective that helped produce that album because they saw her as taking more credit for the songwriting than she deserved. Second Time Around Accused of being “a puppet to her all-male Tuesday Night Music Club,” SL Crow was determined to prove her credentials the second time around. “On her sophomore effort, Crow…found that rare balance between retro, organic rock, and slick, glam-pop.” SL She “took full reign of the album’s production duties…As such, there’s a palpable, fear-driven ambition to the album. Her drive paid off and not only did Crow avoid the dreaded sophomore slump, but Sheryl Crow is easily her best album.” SL Commercially, it gave her another top-ten, multi-platinum album which won the Grammy for Best Rock Album. The Songs “The album’s lead single, the crunchy rocker If It Makes You Happy, was both a retort to the criticism Crow received as well as a fatigued reflection on two years of fame and touring, which included a stint at Woodstock ‘94, specifically referenced on the track.” SL The song won Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. “While the song’s structure is fairly straightforward, other tracks on the album are filled with quirky, stream-of-conscious lyrics (pop-culture references abound: to Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Ouija boards, etc.) and a collage of drum loops, organs, and layered voices. Songs like Ordinary Morning, with its lazy piano figures and raw blues vibe, are cushioned comfortably next to loopy tracks like Maybe Angels and understated ballads like Home, in which Crow recounts the emotional strains of a deteriorating marriage.” SL “Crow’s lyrics take a decidedly moralistic stance but never sound preachy. Hard to Make a Stand touches on pro-life terrorism, while Love Is a Good Thing sees the solution to the world’s problems in the same four-letter word so many other rockers have enthusiastically endorsed over the years. Crow makes subtle references to the Beatles’ ‘Love Is All You Need,’ but not before giving us a dose of modern reality: ‘Watch our children while they kill each other/With a gun they bought at Walmart discount stores.’” SL That song got her album banned by the chain. “‘These are the days when anything goes,’ she sings on the buoyant Everyday Is a Winding Road, and the sentiment speaks for both the song’s playful optimism and the album’s sonic adventurousness. Both Tuesday Night Music Club and 1998’s The Globe Sessions are solid pop-rock efforts, but neither are as consistent, immaculately produced, or distinctly modern as Sheryl Crow.” SL

Review Sources: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 716. SL Slant Magazine (6/30/2003). “Vital Pop: 50 Essential Pop Albums” by Slant staff WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: Last updated 12/10/2024.

The Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge released

Voodoo Lounge The Rolling Stones

Released: July 19, 1994 Peak: 2 US, 11 UK, 12 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.1 UK, 6.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock veteran

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Love Is Strong [3:46] (7/5/94, 91 US, 2 AR, 14 UK, 2 CN, 47 AU) You Got Me Rocking [3:34] (7/23/94, 2 AR, 23 UK, 29 CN, 64 AU) Sparks Will Fly [3:14] (1/7/95, 30 AR, 57 CN) The Worst [2:24] New Faces [2:50] Moon Is Up [3:41] Out of Tears [5:25] (10/7/94, 60 US, 48 CB, 37 RR, 31 AC, 14 AR, 36 US, 3 CN, 43 AU) I Go Wild [4:19] (4/1/95, 20 AR, 29 UK, 45 CN, 57 AU) Brand New Car [4:13] Sweethearts Together [4:46] Suck on the Jugular [4:26] Blinded by Rainbows [4:32] Baby Break It Down [4:07] Thru and Thru [5:59] Mean Disposition [4:09] All songs written by Mick Jaggers and Keith Richards. Total Running Time: 62:08 The Players: Mick Jagger (vocals, guitar, percussion) Keith Richards (guitar, vocals, bass) Ronnie Wood (guitar, backing vocals) Charlie Watts (drums)

Rating: 3.591 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Quotable: Voodoo Lounge exults in the Stones’ reason for being: transcendent, fundamental rock & roll.” – Paul Corio, Rolling Stone Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Voodoo Lounge is a remarkable experience, the most visceral, daring Rolling Stones album since...who knows when.” CD “It’s a gas gas gas to hear the truth, the guts of rock and roll peek through the curtains of time.” CD 1989’s Steel Wheels, “which vaulted stylistic barriers, was in fact the riskier bid. But Voodoo Lounge exults in the Stones’ reason for being: transcendent, fundamental rock & roll.” RS For their first studio album in five years, the Stones “strip their sound back to its spare, hard-rocking basics…turning out a set of songs that are pretty traditionalist.” AMG “They revive some of the English folk and acoustic country-blues that was on Beggars Banquet” AMG although “there are no new twists or turns in either the rockers or ballads (apart maybe from the quiet menace of Thru and Thru, later used to great effect on The Sopranos).” AMG These are “songs that may not be classics, but are first-rate examples of the value of craft.” AMG Part of the sound can be attributed to Don Was, “a neo-classic rock producer… helming the boards with the Glimmer Twins.” AMG “Without seeking to alter their basic approach, [he] has given this classic band a contemporary perspective.” CD “Because [he] insisted Mick have actual lyrics ready for the basic tracks, it obliged the Stones to return to the kind of live, spontaneous rhythm section feel that made even their most humble throwaways just jump out and bite you on the ass.” CD “The departure of bassist Bill Wyman has forced the Stones to dig deep, and the arrival of Darryl Jones has given drummer Charlie Watts, if not a new lease on life, a different point of view. Watts and Wyman were like the Benny Benjamin and James Jamerson of rock ’n’ roll, and without his trusted rhythm mate, the drummer has to listen like his life depended on it.” CD “This is the Stones…playing as a band. The Richards/Ron Wood guitar interplay is peerless, Charlie Watts swings easier than any other rock drummer, and the leanly muscled material flexes deep attitude.” RS “There’s an edge and a sense of danger to Voodoo Lounge that is palpable from the reassuring crunch of Richards and Wood on the opening Love Is Strong, through the honky tonk bump of Baby Break It Down and the blue suede groove of Mean Disposition.” CD “It’s on formula pieces (You Got Me Rocking, Brand New Car), rather than on experiments like Blinded by Rainbows, that the boys kick fiercest, realizing an essential truth: Rock & roll – like its revered forebears, blues and country – soars higher off blessed authenticity than off original expression.” RS The hour-run time is “an ironically bloated length for an album whose greatest strengths are its lean, concentrated classic sound and songcraft.” AMG Had this been released “even five years earlier, this would be a near-triumph of classicist rock, but since Voodoo Lounge came out in the CD age, it’s padded out to 15 tracks, five of which could have been chopped to make the album much stronger.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Rolling Stones AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine CD CdUniverse.com review RS Rolling Stone review by Paul Corio WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/23/2008; last updated 10/25/2021.