Diandra Reviews It All

When they said Sheryl Crow was going back in time, sonically, for her new album, Be Myself, they were not kidding. Be Myself might as well be a follow up to her debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club, continuing her singular, winding style of country-folk-blues. Vocally and instrumentally, Be Myself feels like a walk down the “Santa Monica Boulevard” of Crow’s life; it is sunny, vulnerable, and made to replay.

Sheryl Crow – Be Myself (Live: AUDIENCE Music Exclusive)

Be Myself is one of the most refreshing albums to come out recently, and, also, the most poignant in discussing the emotional distances we travel to find out who we are. This LEGEND has had decades worth of success because she is a narrator. “Heartbeat Away” seems like an ancient Greek, rock n’ roll tale warning against hubris, excess, and any fool that believes looking good covers up being bad. Meanwhile, “Halfway There”, “Rest Of Me”, and “Long Way Back” are alt-rock emblems of the many paths we journey to find “ourselves” when the truth is our “self” is constantly growing and changing. In “Be Myself” Crow uses vibrant instrumentals to show the humor/ dower reality of being the “same person”, yet feeling like you are different. Maybe, your view of you can change, but your actions are a different tale, which is a reality that Crow displays through bright arrangements that shine as if they came from sun-rays, and vocals that are as sweetly edible as a cold beer with friends in a hot afternoon. Sheryl Crow has had many musical iterations/ reincarnations, and Be Myself is a “full circle” realization that “myself” is not a concept as much as a feeling.

Sheryl Crow – Halfway There (Official Animated Video)

Like Sheryl or anyone, I can give you a few words and labels I, and others, have associated with my being, but they will fail to fully grasp who I am and how much I am a person. Thus, Be Myself becomes a therapeutic, sentimental album to listeners who will find Sheryl like a beautiful, music guru; too connected to the the “realness” of living. From relationships that wane “Strangers Again” and the sincere need but all-around confusion as to what it means to “Grow Up”, Sheryl proves that years can pass in your life, creative highs and relationships lows can come, but all of that is just apart of the journey to being yourself that has no specific destination. This is an extremely deep thought and message to stretch in just 11 tracks, but, again, Crow is a master story-teller who arranges her guitar melodies to match the emotional chords she wishes to emanate. From the bouncing, folk-rock arrangements of “Alone In The Dark”, where Sheryl shows betraying or broadcasting your relationship always leads you to a lonely end, to the coolly fierce guitar strains of “Woo Woo” that is just about the desire for exactly that, you will learn a lesson per listen. “Woo Woo”, in particular, shows Sheryl’s capacity to make a deliciously, mesmerizing hook that at just first listen is permanently living in your brain and begging to be sung out loud. For More Information On Sheryl Crow, to buy Be Myself on April 21, or go see her at Bowery Ballroom on April 19 Click Here.