Love is a good thing

April 24, 2018 2:58 AM

Sheryl Crow stares at you from the cover of her 1996 eponymous second album and dares you. It was a largely a personal project, writing and producing basically everything. Cassette Side A:Maybe Angels, A Change [video], Home [video], Sweet Rosalyn, If It Makes You Happy [video], Redemption Day

Cassette Side B: Hard To Make A Stand, Everyday Is A Winding Road [video], Love Is A Good Thing, Oh Marie, Superstar, The Book, Ordinary Morning

posted by hippybear (17 comments total)

Sheryl Crow was one of the things that made the 90s so great. I was never a big fan (I don't suspect many 16 year old boys were), but she made good, fun music, and it was really nice to be able to hear something like "A Change" on the radio even if it wasn't what you really wanted to hear.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:00 AM on April 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Her music offers a gateway between country & rock, rockabilly & rock, and alternative & rock.

I have probably missed a few other genre categories.
posted by filtergik at 4:30 AM on April 24, 2018

We saw her in concert a couple of years ago and she was fabulous.
posted by COD at 4:52 AM on April 24, 2018

This was the music of my teens and it makes me so nostalgic.
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 5:44 AM on April 24, 2018

If I am not misremembering, the best part of Sheryl Crow's bio is the guy she was with in Missouri who she was with before hitting it big who told her she'd never make it, that it was time to settle down and give up on music, to have some babies instead. I enjoy thinking of that guy mumbling into his Bud Light in a crappy bar every time "All I Wanna Do" came on, hundreds and hundreds of times, for two years.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:03 AM on April 24, 2018 [12 favorites]

I prefer Kevin Gilbert.

And I always will.

'Nuff said.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:30 AM on April 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I have this CD and have listened to it countless times.
posted by orange swan at 8:34 AM on April 24, 2018

Sheryl Crow and The Globe Sessions are fantastic albums, full-stop. I got into her because my then-girlfriend's dad was pals with a guy who lived in Albion and knew Bill Bottrell and the idea was that somehow my nascent music career could be given a turbo boost if my songs got to him. Sadly I was rejected by the gatekeeper - due in no small part, I suspect, to an argument I had with my ex's dad after which he apparently referred to me as a "pig$@?!er." He was, to say the least, a challenging individual who would just as soon sabotage you as go out on a limb for you.

When he finally called me to, uh, talk it out, I took great pleasure in saying "First off, ExGFDad, I don't $@?! pigs."
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:56 AM on April 24, 2018

For my money, "The Book" is the best tune ever penned about the aftermath of romantic deception. I still listen to it every so often, followed by "A Change" as a balance restorer.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 9:36 AM on April 24, 2018

I really loved Tuesday Night Music Club, and was really excited about her next album. "If It Makes You Happy" left me cold, though, and I was sort of prepared to be disappointed by the whole thing. It certainly wouldn't have been the first sophomore album that didn't hold up. Then "A Change Would Do You Good" and "Every Day is a Winding Road" reached me, and I realized the first single just wasn't my thing. This is a great album.
posted by curiousgene at 9:56 AM on April 24, 2018

> I prefer Kevin Gilbert... 'Nuff said.

Seems to me (based on my memories of a music fetishist who held a strong grudge against Ms. Crow due to her misadventures with Mr. Gilbert) that there's more to be said?
posted by CheapB at 11:04 AM on April 24, 2018

Sheryl Crow and The Globe Sessions are fantastic albums, full-stop.

Agreed, especially The Globe Sessions. Gilbert's story is incredibly sad, but it's weird how the Tuesday Night Music Club hullaballoo is still brought up to slam Crow or suggest she was nothing without Gilbert when you compare TNMC to the two records that followed it.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 2:06 PM on April 24, 2018

While driving across the country a few months ago, I had the immediate, urgent need to listen to this album, an album I likely hadn't listened to in full since buying it in '96 when I was in middle school. I belted along with every song, and cried while listening to 'Everyday is a Winding Road.' It took me across part of Oklahoma, a state I had never seen. Funny how music can live inside you, dormant, and emerge just at the right time.
posted by missmary6 at 3:17 PM on April 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

"'If It Makes You Happy' left me cold, though"

This is the case with a lot of Sheryl Crow's singles for me. E.g. "All I Wanna Do". Never really impressed me, but "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Can't Cry Anymore" were great. Then with this album, "If It Makes You Happy" was underwhelming, but it was followed by "Every Day is a Winding Road" and "A Change", which were much better. Counterpoint: the lead single from "The Globe Sessions" was "My Favorite Mistake", which is my favorite Sheryl Crow song.

"listening to 'Everyday is a Winding Road' ... took me across part of Oklahoma"

This seems like an appropriate song for such a road trip, despite the straightness of many Oklahoma roads.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:02 PM on April 24, 2018

I dunno, y'all. “If It Makes You Happy” is still in my regular set, but I really identified with it I guess. For me it comes down to the contrast between the sadness of the bridge solo and the hopefulness in the outro solo.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:08 PM on April 24, 2018

The start of "If it Makes You Happy" to me sounded a lot like the Rolling Stones' Happy -- slowed down and transposed down a minor 6th. As far as I know, just a [happy?] coincidence.
posted by kurumi at 10:10 PM on April 24, 2018

This is, IMO, Crow's best album.
posted by eustacescrubb at 10:53 AM on April 25, 2018