If It Makes Me Happy…

Sheryl Crow returns to pop for her ninth studio album Be Myself. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Crow said, “I wanted to have the feeling I had when I made my first two records, which was like being a kid playing with my friends and writing about whatever came to mind.” To recapture the feeling of Sheryl Crow (1996) and The Globe Sessions (1998), the artist brought back Jeff Trott and Tchad Blake, who were behind Crow’s hit “Everyday Is A Winding Road.” Despite the comparisons to her earlier work, Crow paints a modern picture with the album’s themes.

The 55-year-old hilariously nails technology’s role in daily life on the title-track and, more pointedly, on “Heartbeat Away.” A catchy guitar riff and melodic keyboards catch “Be Myself” in Crow’s ‘90s style, but the narrative is jarringly current. Crow sings, “Hanging with the hipsters is a lot of hard work / how many selfies can you take before you look like a jerk? / I took an Uber to a juice bar to hear a new indie band play / they got 99 million followers in only one day.” On the flip side, “Heartbeat Away” tells a story of espionage and Russian hacking.

In 2013, Crow switched things up by going down the winding road of country music. After dealing with the vastly different side of country-radio promotion, she realized that format didn’t suit her. “Long Way Back” feels like a tribute to the aftermath in the form of a laid-back rock track about picking oneself back up after defeat. Crow’s voice cuts through Gary Clark Jr.’s wah and fuzz-filled guitar with a sassy request to put aside differences in order to move forward. Fans won’t have to wait long for more from the Grammy award-winning singer, as she is in collaboration with Don Henley, Stevie Nicks and Willie Nelson, among others for a star-studded record due at the end of the year.