Evolution

The 12th album by the US rock musician comes 5 years after she claimed she would never release another album. After 2019's "Threads", an album on which she collaborated with a number of her influences, from James Taylor to Willie Nelson, Crow thought "For me to make a full artistic statement with a beginning and a middle and an end, and to put the emotion and the money and the time into it only to have it not be heard [in a way it wasn't intended]? It seems slightly futile.” It's not that she has given up on music, but, rather, hope in the album format as an artistic statement.

In her 2022 documentary, "Sheryl", she describes the art she makes in albums as "a picture of who you are at any given moment".

Both of these outlooks seem to shape "Evolution". Crow has described in interviews that she began writing songs as inspiration struck "from the soul", and once she had enough that she liked she reached out to her producer friend Mike Elizando (Ed Sheeran, Twenty One Pilots, Jonas Brothers, Muse, Fiona Apple etc.) to help pull them together.

The picture of the person on this album, is a single Mom of two who is concerned about the future for her sons ("Evolution"/"Waiting In The Wings") or is happily reminiscing on her youth ("Love Life") or battling ongoing self-doubt ("Do It Again"). Sonically, she sounds great, in great control of her voice, which has maintained its balance of rasp and fragility. Musically, gorgeous strings embellish the mid-tempo musings of "Where?", screeching guitars and handclaps shake the listener awake on "Alarm Clock" and slashing guitar strings punctuate the push and pull on her cover of Peter Gabriel's "Digging For Dirt".

While it all sounds pleasant, none of it is exciting, "Don't Walk Away" consists of a generic piano ballad with first draft lyrics on a failing relationship, the well-worn grooves of the cliché "Broken Record" are used to express her frustration with her partner and the opening track "Alarm Clock" is just a semi-disguised song about hating Mondays.

From an artist who has shared with us her deepest turmoil on songs like "If It Makes You Happy" or anti-war protest on "Redemption Day", it feels like she hasn't sharpened her teeth for any of 2024's juiciest topics. The picture of Sheryl at the heart of this album, is a normal woman, at ease, with some future anxieties but who doesn't feel it's quotidian impacts. And that's fine, I'm happy she is happy. But pair that with someone who may have lost the spark to package an album as an artistic statement, it leads to very forgettable fodder.

During her speech on a well-deserved induction to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame last year, she advised up-and-coming musicians that you have to love the work to succeed. And I think this album maintains that she loves what she does, these songs sound effortless to her and she appears to be creating exactly what she wants and is not compelled to chase current trends. But, maybe, now she feels motivated to create, because she can, or because she wants to, rather than because feels compelled to. She feels unincumbered by format and commercial tick-box forays. And, although I wish it sounded better, maybe, THAT, is the evolution at the heart of this album.