Reviews in English language

# Audio CD
# Original Release Date : Europe : Sept. 23, 2005 - UK : Sept. 26 - USA : Sept. 27
# Number of Discs: 1
# Label: A&M Interscope Records (Universal Music Group)

Tracklist

01. I Know Why (Sheryl Crow)
02. Perfect Lie (Sheryl Crow)
03. Good Is Good (Sheryl Crow, Jeff Trott)
04. Chances Are (Sheryl Crow, Jeff Trott)
05. Wildflower (Sheryl Crow)
06. Lifetimes (Sheryl Crow, Jeff Trott)
07. Letter To God (Sheryl Crow)
08. Live It Up (Sheryl Crow, Jeff Trott)
09. I Don't Wanna Know (Sheryl Crow, Jeff Trott)
10. Always On Your Side (Sheryl Crow)
11. Where Has All The Love Gone (Sheryl Crow, Jeff Trott)

[WILDFLOWER] Q's REVIEW

Wildflower
Polydor
***

All she wants to do is have a cry.

Throughout her career, Sheryl Crow has managed a deft balancing act, with every radio-friendly sing-along matched with enough thoughtful introspection to reaffirm her place on the coffee table. So it follows that Wildflower is the tear-stained counterweight to 2002's unrelentingly sunny C'mon C'mon. With legendary arranger (and Beck's dad) David Campbell orchestrating swathes of melancholy for Perfect Lie's bitter country chug and adding Eleanor Rigby sadness to the title track, there are moments of genuine heartbreak amid the musty gloom.

Dan Gennoe

MOJO'S REVIEW

Sheryl Crow
***
Wildflower (A&M)

Fine artist in uneasy period of transition.
Starting out with Tuesday Night Music Club, Sheryl Crow was 31 and loaded with life which cascaded through her first three albums. But C'mon, C'mon three years ago, and now Wildflower, stopped telling covertly angry, existential stories like Leaving Las Vegas and All I Wanna Do and got stuck in routine love-and-philosophising ballads. Her tunesmithery is still right there, sneaking in alluring dissonances - abetted by melancholy string twists from Beck's dad, arranger David Campbell - so almost every track plays nice sweet-and-sour tricks on the ears. But maximum, piercingly intelligent, heartfelt Crow comes through only in Sending A Letter To God - wondering about the eternal dark while queuing at a supermarket checkout. That's the artist who might become, say, a weird cocktail of Bobbie Gentry and Love and Theft Dylan to approach her fifties on an artistic par with Lucinda Williams.

Phil Sutcliffe

REVIEW FROM ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE

Now that Sheryl Crow is forty-three and cheerfully domestic with Lance Armstrong, she says she's tired of striving for hit singles -- but there's one buried on Wildflower anyway. "Live It Up" is classic up-tempo Crow: There's a catchy melody, an appealingly husky vocal, a chorus built around a cliche ("like there's no tomorrow") and other lyrics that show she can be more clever than the chorus (rhyming "inherently self-conscious" with "resting on your haunches"). Most of Crow's fifth studio album, however, is about balladry: slow, lovelorn and, on every track but one, accompanied by a string section. Unfortunately, Crow isn't doing herself any favors with this approach. It's not just that the album would be more fun if it rocked harder; all too often on these songs she's straining for high notes or stranded in an arrangement that leaves her voice sounding breathy and reedy. The track "Chances Are" is gorgeous, though: In a delicate swirl of acoustic guitar, tabla percussion and strings, Crow sings hypnotically about Terence McKenna, "hybrid lives" and the overwhelming world all around us. It's reminiscent of early Van Morrison and suggests new possibilities for Crow -- if it makes her happy.

REVIEW FOR AMAZON

Since her 1993 debut Tuesday Night Music Club, Sheryl Crow has been churning out unassailably appealing CDs in an unassailably appealing voice. Which means, according to the rules of the pop music cosmos, by album six it's about time for a misstep. Natural law, fortunately, will have to keep checking its watch. Wildflower moves Sheryl Crow one step closer to Hall of Fame status as she shunts the established rock star's impulse to get all experimental and sprawls, rambling-rose like, across the substance-spiked pop landscape she helped pioneer. Three ingredients, glistening vocals, flawless production and catchy songs rub up against one another in all the right places. These ingredients will cause you to hold your breath on the beautiful piano ballad "Always on Your Side." They pop up again on the George Harrison-esque "Where Has All the Love Gone" reminding you that Crow can reflect and reveal as convincingly as she can rock. If there is a ripple that runs through Wildflower, it's a pensive one. On the spacy "Chances Are," she sings of being "lost inside a daydream." The measure of her talent, ripe and reappraisal-resistant, is her ability to consistently bring us inside the bubble with her. -- Tammy La Gorce

REVIEW FROM NEW YORK TIMES

Sheryl Crow gets serious on "Wildflower." She's looking inward, thinking about love, the meaning of life and the evening news. And instead of singing folk-rock and country-rock, she's thinking about Elton John and the Beatles of "Abbey Road." Along with glimmering guitars, she brings on the strings. She risks turning doubly pompous when she combines cosmic thoughts and big baroque production. Most of the time, Ms. Crow gets away with it.

That's because of her voice, which has always had a girl-next-door quality. When the arrangements grow more expansive, Ms. Crow sings more quietly, as if she's not trying to preach but to figure things out. That's what she's doing in the pristine "Chances Are" and in "Letter to God," where she's skeptical about religion and intolerance. The album includes poised love songs like the torchy "Perfect Lie" and the
as if she's not trying to preach but to figure things out. That's what she's doing in the pristine "Chances Are" and in "Letter to God," where she's skeptical about religion and intolerance. The album includes poised love songs like the torchy "Perfect Lie" and the folky "Wildflower" itself. But it's a relief when, midway through, Ms. Crow lets herself rock a little with "Lifetimes" and "Live It Up," delivering the carpe diem philosophy with stories and a beat. Even on an album so determined to mull things over, she knows that introspection has its limits. JON PARELES

REVIEW FROM INDIELONDON.CO.UK

Review: Jack Foley

SHERYL Crow's sixth studio album, Wildflower , probably rates among the most pensive of her career but remains a thoroughly enjoyable listen to boot. There is something effortlessly calming about her glistening vocals that bring with them a welcome and knowing sense of familiarity.

Take her most recent single, Good Is Good , for instance, which features some fine Dylan-esque slide guitar before easing into Crow's sultry vocals. It's classic Crow in style and washes over you with all the polished production values fans have come to expect.

The same high values are embodied in the rest of the long-player, even though, as stated, things tend to be a little more pensive than usual. Only a handful of tracks recall the breezy abandon of earlier work such as Every Day Is A Winding Road but fans probably won't mind.

Tracks like Chances Are feel far more reflective, especially when enshrined in lyrics such as 'I was lost inside a daydream, swimming through the saline'. Once again, however, Crow's sweet vocals are augmented by a beguiling guitar riff that hovers over the daydream like a humming bird.

Title track, Wildflower , is another tender ballad, more akin to the soft, whispery style of Katie Melua than Crow's breezier country moments - but it is evidence of an artist who continues to mature, complete with a cinematic strings section. For this reviewer, however, the highlights come in the form of the livelier tracks, such as the joyously upbeat Lifetimes , with its hammond organ and clap-happy beat.

Lyrically, it's also quite enchanting, featuring a catchy chorus that boasts 'we could live lifetimes in a single day, no matter what you do I love you anyway'. Likewise, Live It Up which opens in similarly lively fashion and boasts some cheeky, ironic lyrics that give way into a genuinely rousing chorus.

Elsewhere, there is a gentle melancholy surrounding the piano-driven Always on Your Side that is mirrored in the forthcoming single, Where Has All The Love Gone , a musically more upbeat effort that still casts a disenchanted eye over the state of the world as it stands today. Its wimsical lyrics underline the pensive tone of the album, opening with the telling line 'today, I saw the strangest thing on the evening news, a man who isn't sad at all by what's going on'.

What's more, it comes with a vocally assured, multi-layered chorus and another enchanting string arrangement that serves to emphasise the overall quality of Crow's songwriting. Another future single, I Know Why , opens the album in similarly impressive fashion, this time incorporating some banjo.

It serves to ensure that the intelligent, provocative and enchanting Wildflower blossoms into one of Crow's finest albums to date.

MSNBC.MSN.COM

Wildflower' is downbeat, brooding and could use a bit of fertilizer

SOUND BITES: AUDIO REVIEWS
Updated: 6:09 p.m. ET Sept. 26, 2005

This week brings us, “Wildflower,” a disappointing album from the next Mrs. Lance Armstrong. On the bright side, comfort yourself with the best album Neil Young's produced in years, “Prairie Wind.” It's the end of the trilogy that started with “Harvest” and “Harvest Moon.” Ryan Adams tries to see how many CDs he can release in a year with “Jacksonville City Night.” Finally, Dana Cooper shows how it's done singer-songwriter style with the melodic “Made of Mud.”

Sheryl Crow, “Wildflower”
Point to ponder while contemplating Sheryl Crow's new “Wildflower” CD: will a bad review earn a set of tread marks on my back?

Time to run. Don't be deceived into thinking that big rock on Crow's finger courtesy of fiancee Lance Armstrong will result in a giddy album of love songs. Instead, this disc is downbeat and downright boring.

Crow is 43 now, beyond the point where all you wanna do is have some fun. She's brooding over the big issues of life, love, loyalty and mortality, and that's more than understandable. It's just harder to make that into engaging pop-rock tunes, and that's Crow's strength, where she beat the odds to become very successful in a style that's no longer fashionable.

Here, you slog through seven earnest, mid-tempo songs until there's a sign of life: “Live it Up” has Crow urging someone to not let life pass them by, and it has the disc's strongest hook and quickest pace. “Always on Your Side” is the best of the rest, a stately ballad that benefits from stripping the music down. Otherwise, the production is simultaneously busy and rather anonymous, unwisely emphasizing Crow's thin vocals.

Perhaps “Wildflower” has a few seeds that will take time to grow. Pass the fertilizer, though.
—David Bauder

Review from Riverwide (SC Official Forum)

I Know Why
I wasn't too sure about this one ‘til I heard the studio version, but I'm definitely happy with it now. The strings and banjo in the chorus really take it to another level. Not the best track on the album, but a strong song and a good opener. 8/10

Perfect Lie
One of Sheryl's prettiest melodies. Her voice is lovely in this too. So relaxed and forlorn. The chorus is really a thing of beauty. It's classic Sheryl. It's quite similar in style and production to “Good Is Good”. One of the only things I'm not hugely keen on is the lack of a bridge. There's an instrumental break, but no actual bridge. Still a completely wonderful song though. Right up there with her best. 9/10

Good Is Good
Well, we already know this one. Seems to be dividing people. Personally I think it's fantastic. I've loved it since the first time I heard it and it still gives me goosebumps. How can she write brand new songs that sound like you've known them all your life? 9/10

Chances Are
I've always adored this b-side, and it's now even better with the addition of slightly dissonant strings, adding to the slightly errie tone of the song. I can imagine this one going down like a lead balloon with lots of people, but personally I adore it. One of my all time Sheryl faves and I'm delighted to see it given album track status. It was always way too good to be a forgotten b-side. 10/10

Wildflower
Possibly my favourite Sheryl song ever, or at least right up there with my up-til-now favourite, “Riverwide”. This is just truly sublime songwriting. Sheryl sounds sweeter on this than we've ever heard her before. There's almost a detachment in her delivery, which shouldn't work, but somehow does. It's like she's decided to underplay it and just let the melody and lyrics speak for themselves. Absolutely gobsmackingly gorgeous. 10/10

Lifetimes
It's at this point that the album begins to falter for me a little. Perhaps it was inevitable after the tracks that went before it, but this just seems a little “poppy” and “C'mon, C'mon”-ish for my liking. The melody is undeniably lovely, but the production has that Shanks-ish shuffle which is just a tad safe and “nice” for me to really fall in love with. Not hugely keen on the bridge either, and the Beatles-esque intrumental just before the chorus come back in feels a little self-conscious. 7/10

Letter To God
I had expected to like this track a lot more. It sounded quite dark based on the 30 second clip we heard the other day, but the end result just seems quite uninspired to me. The melody isn't particularly interesting, and the production really lets the side down. It just chugs along like a poor relation of the sublime “Redemption Day”. I'm sure I'll be shot down for saying this, but it just doesn't really do a lot for me. 6/10

Live It Up
Definitely the album's low point for me. I love the little acoustic intro, and fans of “All I Wanna Do” will notice a familiar production element, which is a nice touch, but my admiration for the song ends there. This song has no place on an album which was meant to forego pop tunes in favour of deeper, darker songs. It has a very standard melody line and again, chugs along inoffensively enough, but it just seems so very, very wrong that it shares an album with the likes of Wildflower and Chances Are. It has that “Diamond Road”-ish quality, which just grates on these ears. Did someone listen to the album and think “Yikes, we really need an upbeat track on here. Quick Sheryl, cobble something together and throw it on the album.”? Well that's what it sounds like. Inexcusable. 4/10

I Don't Wanna Know
This is somewhat of a recovery after the disappointment of the preceeding few tracks. The chorus is a bit dirgelike, but the verses are beautiful. Again, it's slightly anodyne though. Like it's lacking edge or something. Once again, I can't really blame the melody or lyrics, it's mostly the fault of the production. I can't help but hark back to Sheryl Crow and The Globe Sessions and marvel at the production. It just sounded so much more raw and interesting than these soft-rock numbers. I was thrilled when I heard she was going to record an “artist oriented” record, but to be honest, many of these tracks wouldn't be at all out of place on “C'mon C'mon”. No terrible thing, but not what I was hoping for either. 7/10

Always On Your Side
This is more like it. Sure, it's a tad cheesy, but the superior melody and the rich, deep, warm vocals make cribbing about cheesiness seem a tad mean. It's just a lovely song. No gimmicks or frills. Again, it's another one of those songs that sounds like it's been around for years. Lovely. 7/10

Where Has All The Love Gone
I was really unsure about this track when I heard it on the AOL sessions. The nursery-rhyme quality of the melody seemed way too simplistic and cheesy, but when the chorus comes in, some truly lovely production and harmonies kick in which not only rescue it but elevate it to being quite a decent little song. It remains ever so slightly “twee” though. 7/10

So on the whole, I think it's very much a top-heavy album. The really, really good stuff is at the start, halfway through it has a major crisis of confidence, and almost manages to regroup by the end. All in all, it's not at all what I was hoping for, which in my heart of hearts was probably “The Globe Sessions Vol.2”. I can't believe this is the album which was supposedly going to steer clear of safe, commercial songs. It's a step up from “C'mon C'mon”, but far from what I believe her to be capable of.

Overall rating: 7/10

REVIEW FROM GUARDIAN UNLIMITED

Sheryl Crow, Wildflower

Betty Clarke
Friday September 23, 2005

She ditched the rock-chick image and good-time attitude for undemanding pop a while ago, but Sheryl Crow still clings to the MOR Americana that soundtracked the 1970s. Often prone to a bout of introspection, she is now keen to reinvent herself as one of the most enduring symbols of that era: the singer-songwriter. Wildflower is Crow's attempt to make her very own Tapestry, the album that was to a generation of women who had burnt their bras what Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill was to their daughters - a safe spoonful of empowerment. But Crow is too much of a cut-price Carly Simon to compete. Her spirit evaporating with every high note, Crow is disenchanted in Perfect Lie, devoted in Lifetimes and in despair at the state of the world in Where Has All the Love Gone. But it's all too dull to make anyone care but Crow.

[GOOD IS GOOD] REVIEW FROM musicomh.com

Sheryl Crow - Good Is Good (Polydor)
UK release date: 19 September 2005

Co-written by Jeff Trott (like most of her better songs), this is a strummy, stringy ballad that's like a less drippy and irritating alternative to Shania Twain's You're Still The One, and nods a little bit in the direction of The Beatles with some echoes of Hey Jude.

It's well-written, well-constructed, nicely recorded and well-produced and does pretty much exactly what it says on the box - it's pretty standard Sheryl Crow, and by Sheryl Crow's standards, it's pretty good: not mind-blowing, but definitely a little higher than average.

It's not likely to give Crow a smash hit, but airplay is likely to help shift the album when that's released, and with most of her acoustic guitar playing mainstream singer songwriter peers seeming to be in hibernation at the moment, this definitely plugs a gap in the current musical spectrum. It's nice and it's classy, and it deserves to be on the shopping list of any VH1 regular.

[GOOD IS GOOD] BILLBOARD'S REVIEW

SHERYL CROW
Good Is Good

Producer(s): John Shanks, Jeff Trott, Sheryl Crow
Writer(s): S. Crow, J. Trott
Publisher(s): various
Genre: ROCK
Label/Catalog Number: A&M (CD promo)
Source: Billboard Magazine
Originally Reviewed: August 27, 2005

Since her 2002 release "C'mon, C'mon," Sheryl Crow has reinvented herself as a celebrity icon amid partnerships with Starbucks, Dell and the Tour de France. Enter John Shanks, the wildly promiscuous producer du jour, who teamed with Crow for her new album, "Wildflower" (due Sept. 27). "Good Is Good" is a safe, radio-friendly ride. But Crow is a soul driver : Her voice is full of the sun-kissed melancholy that has given her guitar pop an authentic shine—though as Crow's vocals zoom in on the "thunder" and "lightning" of midlife nostalgia, the high-concept production leaves little room for uniqueness. Even so, the breezy, far-reaching hook and achy charm makEs "Good" worth the ride. — Sven Philipp

[GOOD IS GOOD] MINI-REVIEW

The lead-off single from Wildflower combines the classic Sheryl Crow sound with elements of Lennon/McCartney's galaxian melodicism and Rolling Stones/Tom Petty roots-rock swagger. Forget about her couple of weeks in the spotlight as Ms. Lance Armstrong; Crow is back to being the superstar in the relationship.

Source : rhapsody.com - Editor: Nick Dedina

SPECIAL SECTION : NON-REVIEWS

Disgusting reviews from frustated (and jealous) reviewers :-P

MEGASTAR.CO.UK

Sheryl Crow took some time out from the music business to follow her new fiance, cycling champion Lance Armstrong, on his European training tour, and just be 'normal'. We're not sure what 'normal' means when you've bagged nine Grammies, sold 25m records worldwide and your buff boyf is god of the mountains, but hey, she's back! On Wildflower, we get a sense as to what Crow was listening to while she washed Armstrong's sweaty shorts.

Neil Young, George Harrison and Elton John shine through, but Crow never wonders too far from her familiar sound. She may play it safe, but her singer-songwriter talents can't be overlooked. Her time out from the music scene has allowed Crow to reflect on the bigger issues; I Know Why is a ballad about loneliness, while first single Good Is Good, gives us her usual pleasant chorus and harmonious hook. But other than Live It Up, there's no country rock on offer, just Crow reflecting on love and life and drawing us into her own world.

Next time, she should just take a two week holiday like the rest of us.

Daisy Kay

SUNDAY TIMES

Does the blurb accompanying this CD reveal more than intended, cataloguing, as it does, Crow's sales, awards, charitable concerns and the "corporate campaigns" her music has been used in? This last nails what has, for some, always been a misgiving about the Missourian: that she wants to have it both ways, playing country blues with the barroom boys while blunting a once-sharp lyrical edge to appeal to Hollywood and Madison Avenue. Wildflower is a bit of both, too. Beck's dad, David Campbell, orchestrates heartbreakers such as I Know Why and Chances Are to lovely effect, but the album is so inoffensive, it might have been designed with those corporate campaigns in mind.